Lord Of War Book 1 Hellfire
by Nahala Riddle
Summary: Lord Theilo has never heard of angels, demons, or other planes. That changes when a failed tesserect on his starship, a fallen angel, and a visit from an unpleasant demon conspire to send him and his general on a perilousmission to the very depths of hell


LORD OF WAR

A Novel by Leah M. Reino

Started Nov. 1, 9:15 AM., 2007

BOOK I: Hellfire

Prologue: Katana

The air was perfectly still, not even a breath of wind stirred through the twilight sky. The sky was shrouded in a perpetual breath- taking evening brilliance. Far below, a silver ocean stretched as far as the eye could see, not moving, no tide breathing. It seemed as if a basin had been filled with silver fluid, reflecting nothing but its own splendor and glowing softly in its brilliance. Above, hanging so low as to seem that you could almost touch them, millions and millions of stars shone brighter and far more numerous than any seen anywhere else on any of the planes. They were like dazzling diamonds, multitudes cast upon deep purple velvet, shining down on the alien sea.

Wing beats broke the stillness that had before lain over the scene. A woman, or something like it, flew through the sky. Her skin was a brilliant silver that radiated in a soft, pure light; it seemed as if, a silversmith, desiring a perfect creation, had taken a perfect model and cast the finest quality molten metal over her, where it did not cool, but instead hardened and kept its heated brilliance. Her no- pupiled eyes rivaled the sky around in their pure twilight color. The hair that streamed from her head to the middle of her back seemed as if some weaver, taking a sheet of the blackest night that he could find, had torn thin strips off, and kept tearing the strips until he resulted in hair as soft as lamb's wool, and thin as the thin beams of light that the stars pierce the sky with.

She wore nothing but a soft purple toga and silver sandals. Her toga fastened at the shoulder with a silver and diamond pin like a six-pointed star, and her sandals seemed as if they had been made from the same molten silver brilliance that made up her skin.

But all of her beautiful features could not rival the enormous wings that sprouted from her shoulders- giant, deep purple feathered wings like a hawk's. They seemed to cleave the air in half as they moved, producing only a steady rhythm that seemed to entrance the world and hold it, as in a single breath sustained.

Her flight was smooth as silk, cutting through the sky as a boat through the still waters of a pond at night. Angling herself, she swooped upwards, more elegant than any bird on the mortal planes, more graceful that a swan in water.

She swam through the sky as a boat drifts down the river on a humid summer day- slowly, meandering, taking all the time in the world. Her movements seemed to be as one with the twilight that wrapped itself around her lovingly. Diving, her long ebony hair streamed out behind her. The whole world seemed to watch this one woman, entranced, flowing with her every swoop, straining with her every wing beat. The rhythm contained in her wing beats seemed to dictate the sound of eternity.

Abruptly, she came to a stop, hovering in the soft twilight sky. She cocked her head as a bird would, listening to some faraway sound. Faintly, through the night, she heard a faraway melodious cry that didn't fail to send a chill through her bones. Her eyes became focused; the night lost its magic quality, instead taking on an aura of urgency. She was not meandering now- The babbling, peaceful brook had turned into a roaring stream.

Her wings beat as fast as a hummingbird's, carrying her straight as an arrow through the twilight. The air that streamed around her whispered _Hurry, Hurry! _There was no swooping or diving now- she shot straight as an arrow through the darkening sky, glancing up at the stars every now and then to confirm her position.

Again the melodious cry pierced the night, beautiful, but with a note of discord to it, a jarring, sinister sound underlying the sweetness. She paled, her silver skin dimming in its splendor, as she pushed herself to the limit.

Far ahead, a silver gate started to come into view, its ornate beams twisting like the growth of some moon-fed plant, reaching up towards the stars.

The silver angel only flew faster, glancing behind her as the call came again, much, much closer. She could just make out faint, dark figures all in black, moving swiftly- and gaining.

Her face hardened, her mouth tightening. Her wing beats, which had started becoming erratic with fatigue, became faster and more urgent. The gate was rapidly approaching- but so were her pursuers.

An arrow sped through the night, unexpected, sinister, and hit the silver angel in the shoulder. She reeled as it struck, her wings suddenly stopping, face surprised. Gritting her teeth, she yanked the arrow out. Silver blood oozed from the deep wound. The arrow had bought the pursuers all the time they needed. In one second, they were upon her, large, black ugly creatures that looked like humans with black feathers on their bodies and giant black wings. All together, they seemed like a cross between a human and a crow.

Ugly beaks sprouted from misshapen human heads, black feathers covered their vaguely human forms. Their wings were pitch black and enormous, larger than their prey's. They stunk of rotted meat and putrid flesh, and their large eyes were a dull red. They were misshapen nightmares, and some artist, having dreamed them and not being able to bear having them in his head anymore, had spat them out into the world.

The silver woman grimly drew a katana, her name-sake sword, from her belt. Silver blood flowed freely from her arrow-wound as she swung at the five raven- creatures. The dived in, beaks tearing at her flesh, claws sprouting from misshapen hands and gouging her skin.

She dancing nimbly through the air, dodging, weaving, slashing, but all in vain. One of the raven- creatures got through her defenses and swing a powerful wing towards her head. Her neck snapped backwards, her eyes suddenly clouded. The raven-creatures watched as she fell downwards.

"She'll fall into the mortal planes, brothers." One of them commented in a screeching, hissing voice.

"Let her fall- she cannot ever come back." Another laughed in a voice like nails on a chalkboard.

Laughing their ugly laughter, the crow- people flew off, and Katana, the Twilight Angel, fell further, towards a mortal plane known as The Milky Way…

Chapter 1: Lord of War

The massive cylindrical starship coasted silently through space, smaller ships swarming around it like bees to a hive. It was huge, sleek, and black, seeming to carry an aura of menace and icy determination. Massive lasers were mounted on the side of the ship, huge enough to destroy a whole planet. And destroy them it had- For this was no ordinary starship- This was the flagship of Lord Theilo's fleet, the infamous Black Ghost.

The name itself struck fear into the heart of every sentient who heard it- The Black Ghost was merciless, quick to destroy entire solar systems and think none the less of it.

But the ship was only a shadow of the man himself, a human/kilas cross who was known only as Lord Theilo, or, as most people called him, "Lord of War". He had appeared out of nowhere five years previously. He had seemed harmless at the time- just another political candidate. But he had been a rabble-rouser, a natural-born leader. When he had been cut from the race for being "a riot-causer" he had gone on a rampage, sweeping through the galaxy like a scythe through a wheat field. His demands were simple- give up the galaxy and the position of Emperor, or else. Many planets allied himself with him, provided armies. Those that didn't were simply destroyed, reduced to so much asteroid dust. Those that had valuable natural resources, he kept, his armies subduing the people within a matter of hours.

The Senate had scoffed at his demands, and went on ignoring him, as they had all threats in the past. Until he had landed on the planet, strode into the Senate, disrupting a meeting, and killed twenty-five Galactic Senators, though the Emperor had gotten away. After that, they became more realistic, sending out armies and ships.

What happened next could only be described as a disaster. He obliterated every ship that was sent out, massacred any resistance. His supporters rallied around him as some sort of God. He was now in full control of half of the galaxy, just leaving another battleground.

"Set course for Diagas. I need to speak to their President." Lord Theilo stood at the window, legs apart, arms clasped behind his back. His long flowing silver hair was tied back with a leather cord, his dark blue eyes showing no emotion. At a guess, a casual observer would have placed his age around . He was actually 28, but years of toil and emotional stress had taken a toll on him. His face was starting to show signs of wear and worry, but nothing could remove the look of regality that hung around like a cloud. His nose was razor-thin, features sharp and defined. He had the look of eternal monarchy, proud and cold to the last degree. His clothes were as to be expected of a War Lord- black armor, sleek and shiny, leather gloves, and a weapons belt that hung casually from his waist. He seemed to be the essence of fear and mercilessness, evident even in the way he stood. Here was a man who knew what he wanted and would achieve it through any means necessary.

The bridge consisted of the huge window around the front and sides of the oblong oval room, with a surveying deck running along the length. Below and to the sides of the deck were lowered pits in which computer technicians monitored the ship's functions and communications. The whole bridge was in sleek black metal, lit only by the stars and computer monitors.

"My lord- are you sure you will be well received by the Diagans? You destroyed one of their colony planets, after all." A human female, roughly about thirty years old, asked him, not breaking from her salute. She had long straight brown hair tied back in a simple ponytail with long bangs covering the left side of her forehead, dark brown eyes, and a scar running along the left side of her face. She was dressed in standard military uniform- a black coat with silver edging and a high collar, black pants with silver edging, and knee-high flexible silver boots. Although she was third in command to Lord Theilo, she didn't trust him an inch. Look at what had happened to the last third in command. Thrown into the vacuum of space after disobeying an order.

The corner of Theilo's mouth twitched and his dark, dark blue eyes seemed to laugh softly, an expression that would strike fear into the hearts of the bravest men. "That colony had disbanded from their mother planet two years ago. Besides- they don't really have a choice in obeying me, do they? I have half their population in service, and they do love their families." He paused, his mind on other things. Then he added. "At ease, Lieutenant General."

Lieutenant General Alene Nikas hid any outward signs of disgust as she dropped her hand from its customary salute. _Remember what you took this job for_, she reminded herself. _And what was that?_ The sarcastic part of her asked. She sighed inwardly. _You know why. At least this is better than that was_, she told herself firmly. She often talked inwardly to herself. There weren't that many other people to talk to, at any rate.

"My Lord…" Alene hesitated, wondering what kind of a mood he was in. If it was the wrong kind, she would find herself outside the airlock before she could say 'Sorry'. It was a rather delicate matter with Lord Theilo, what she was about to ask him.

"Go ahead." Theilo said absent-mindedly, staring out at the ships swarming around the Black Ghost. Alene took courage from his reaction. When he was mellow like this, he was easy to deal with.

"A kilas journalist wanted to interview you. Security wouldn't let him in, but he gave me three questions that he wanted to know your opinion on. Would you consider- Well, answering them? It would be good for your supporters." She said rapidly, wincing in expectation.

Lord Theilo blinked. This was unexpected. Still, he probably should… "Very well." He said, turning to face the surprised Lieutenant General. Once again, she found herself shocked by how closely his features resembled a hawk's- High cheekbones, long, razor thin nose, and pointed chin.

Alene blinked, and then took out a recorder and a sheet of hastily scrawled questions. "Um, thank you, my Lord." She said awkwardly, scanning the questions and wincing several times.

"First one. I only have a couple minutes to spare." Theilo said calmly, but with a hint of fire in his words. He was at his most seemingly harmless- but most dangerous. Alene recognized this and paled.

"Lord Theilo- you appeared five years ago out of nowhere. Where did you come from, and what made you decide to become Emperor?" she read, wondering if she would make it out of the bridge alive today. Pushing that thought aside, she clicked on the voice recorder.

Theilo smiled humorlessly. Silly fools- They really expected an answer? How adorably clueless. "I came from the inter-galactic space, from a tiny little planet that barely sustained life." He responded. His eyes hardened as he spoke. Oh, if only the fools knew… "I wanted… I wanted to become Emperor to change the galaxy." He lied. They would probably believe that, too.

Alene blinked in surprise. Inter-Galactic space? Between galaxies? There weren't any planets out there… But she wasn't about to argue her point. Theilo was in a killing mood, and she didn't want to be his victim.

"Second- You have mentioned that you hate Senate control and prefer a monarchy. Would you explain this comment?" Alene winced again. She desperately hoped that Lord Theilo wouldn't kill her.

Theilo nearly exploded with laughter. Honestly, the idea! Why did he prefer it? Oh, the silliness! He preferred it because he liked the idea of absolute power, the imbeciles! Nearly chuckling, he responded. "Well, I think that a monarchy is less likely to be corrupt. Less people in power." How fools rushed in…

Alene was astonished when Lord Theilo smiled broadly then answered the question. Several other officers turned to stare as they heard a hint of humor in his voice. No one had ever seen him smile, much less actually seem humorous. The general population of the bridge stared incredulously, and then quickly went back to their tasks, avoiding one another's eyes.

"Uh, okay… Um, finally, what do you plan to do with the galaxy once you are Emperor?" she said, breathing an internal sigh of relief that the ordeal was nearly over. Lord Theilo almost laughed this time, smiling again. Why, he hadn't had this much fun since the Gerans had rebelled against his rule. He had imploded their moon and watched the black hole that it had created suck the helpless planet in. "I plan to improve life for all the sentient beings in the galaxy." He replied, trying to withhold from bursting out in laughter. He planned to dominate, squeeze money out of, and terrorize the galaxy, of course! Honestly…

"Now, set course for Diagas!" Theilo commanded, still nearly chuckling. The computer technicians, unsure of how to deal with this now humorous murderer, hastily set the hyperspace coordinates. Alene jumped, turned off the recorder, and handed it to a guard.

"Take this to that kilas journalist, then escort him to his ship." She told him. "Make sure that he leaves immediately. If not, shoot him down." The guard nodded, and headed out the door. Alene approached Lord Theilo. "Permission to be dismissed and oversee tesserect?" she asked, her hand once again in a stiff salute. Theilo nodded, and Alene walked down into the computer bay.

"All right, standard issue tesserect, set course to Diagas!" she called, watching the technician's progress on the large overhead screen. Creating tesserects, or wrinkles of the space-time fabric, was a tricky, dangerous business at best, even with all the advanced equipment that they had. Honestly, she hated having to do it, but it was the only way to effectively travel through space. It was a human design, which of course only made it worse. She was human, but not proud of it. Humans were known for their destructive, warlike natures and blatant unconcern for the well-being of their planet and galaxy. She suspected that it was Lord Theilo's human part that made him the evil man he was. When the humans had first made contact with other species, the other species had been appalled at the weapons and wars and devices for killing that the humans had. They seemed to take joy in violence. Alene personally felt that she wasn't really human- her great-great-great- grandparents had left Earth as soon as they could, to get away from their species senseless violence. They had lived and had their family on Relas, and her family had never been back to Earth ever again. Not that Alene had the slightest desire to. Earth was a nuclear dump now, a holocaust world. No one really lived there anymore. Well, maybe they did, but no one really paid any attention to them. Earth was merely another planet in the galaxy, a drop in the ocean. Albeit a drop of some deadly virus that had infected the whole galaxy with violent, bloodthirsty humans. Like Alex… She shook her head, trying to dislodge memories of starvation, killing, and gang wars. As she did so, her bangs shifted aside for the briefest of seconds, showing something that might have been a gang tattoo- A rose made out of barbed wire.

"Lieutenant General, would you look at this, please?" A wylas technician was staring at the screen, unable to believe his compound eyes. Alene went up to him, grateful to be distracted from bad memories, and peered over his shoulders. Wylas resembled a bipedal, green amphibious creature with large, yellow compound eyes, webbed hands, and six arms. Personally, Alene liked wylas. They were quiet, non-aggressive creatures that loved music, water, poetry, the moon, and computer technology. They were an agreeable, harmless species. Very polite, too.

"What is it?" she asked, scanning the small monitor in front of him. The wylas touched a part of the screen, which shimmered and enhanced to show a long string of graphs, numbers, and 3-D models. "It's these space-fabric coordinates. I- I've never seen anything like it before. It's almost like the fabric was... well, _tearing_." He responded worriedly.

Alene frowned, her brow wrinkled as she looked at the screen. "You're right." She responded, not letting on exactly how disturbed she was. This was just not normal. The space-time fabric couldn't _tear_, it was a… a constant! An absolute! True, there were black holes, but they weren't tears, just a tunnel in the fabric. And tesserects only folded the space part of the fabric. They didn't tear it…

"I don't know if we should make the jump." The wylas said worriedly. "It might… It might be dangerous." He glanced up at Alene, who swallowed. She glanced over at Lord Theilo, who looked impatient.

"It can't be more dangerous that my Lord getting angry." She said wryly. "Is it in our path?" She crossed her fingers, hoping…

"No." She breathed a sigh of relief, and a prayer. Not that she believed in any god. She had seen too many atrocities committed to believe that a God would allow them to happen. "But…" She glanced at him in alarm. "It's _expanding_." He said, like he couldn't believe it. Alene stared. She couldn't believe it either, watching a hole open up in the middle of the 3-D model on the screen. Right then and there, she made her decision.

"Do it now. Step on it!" She ordered all the technicians. Immediately there was a storm of typing, orders to the computer, and a small amount of cursing as the computer responded.

"Tesserect in Five… Four… Three… Two…. One…" The speakers blared. Alene gritted her teeth and hoped for the best as she felt the wrinkle begin. At first, it felt like a normal tesserect. Everyone and everything was frozen, being able to see and hear, but frozen in time. Even their breaths stopped. Internally, she let out a huge sigh of relief. Then something went horribly wrong. First, the ship began to rock crazily. It was bizarre, everything frozen in time, yet motion. It made the pit of Alene's stomach roil and churn. It was the feeling like in a nightmare when you know that something is horribly, horribly wrong with reality, yet you can't move, can't escape it. Then, a weird, glowing red light began to fill the whole ship, pulsating and vibrating, filling every nook and cranny. Still, it was all in absolute silence. Then the worst thing of all happened- the air was rent by a sound that no words could describe. It was a keening, moaning sound that grated through Alene's bones and sounded like the whole galaxy itself was crying in agonizing pain. It was like a baby crying, but higher-pitched, more primal and fierce.

When she felt like she could take it no more, like her ears and sanity were going to break, it was gone. Vanished. They were through the tesserect.

"What in the name of zeck was that!?!" Lord Theilo was down in the computer bay in an instant, looking a bit shaken, but otherwise fine. He glared at all the technicians at large, looking like he would throw them all out of the airlock if he didn't get an answer immediately.

"There was a tear- a tear in the space-time fabric. We thought- we thought that we could make the jump." The poor wylas technician that Alene had been talking to stuttered.

Theilo swore. "Zecking kilordians, you made the jump while there was a _tear_ in the fabric of space-time?! Do you realize exactly how expensive the equipment and soldiers on this ship are? I couldn't afford to lose them! You may have permanently damaged some of the computers!"

The technicians all nodded miserably. "All the equipment is fine, sir." A human technician reported, looking up from his diagnostic. "It seems…" he frowned. "It seems as if we passed through an- overlapping- in the space-time continuum." He said slowly, incredulously.

"Run a diagnostic and travel log. Put up the results on the overhead monitor." Theilo said shortly, glaring at everyone in particular. He turned to watch the huge monitor on the wall behind him. After several seconds, the screen lit up, filling with a huge cross-sectioned model of the space-time fabric.

"Okay. Computer, show model of travelogue." The head technician, a short creature that resembled a lizard on two legs said. The screen blinked once, and a 3-D model Black Ghost appeared, projected into the room, moving through space. It stopped and hovered there. All normal. Then, the space-time fabric to the far left of it began to tear, ripping to show black void underneath. "Pause." The technician walked forward through the now-frozen simulation, to the part where the tear was, and tapped the tear with his finger. "This- Is what started to happen. My second in command- (he glanced over at the wylas, who gulped) - Asked Lieutenant General Nikas about it. She studied it, and then decided that the tear was too far off to worry about." Lord Theilo nodded, studying the diagram with impassive eyes and face. "She was right." He said as the head technician opened his mouth to continue. "Excuse me, my Lord?" the technician asked a touch rudely. Theilo shot him a glare that would curdle milk and walked up to the diagram. "A normal tesserect would take up five sectors. This "tear", as you call it, is ten sectors away. Unless it suddenly expanded rapidly, it was perfectly safe to perform the tesserect. Oh, and would you look at me for a minute?" The head technician, who had been rolling his eyes extremely rudely, turned and looked at Theilo with a half-amused expression on his face. "Yes, _my Lord_?" he asked sarcastically. Everyone on the bridge sucked up their breath at their tone. Alene winced and half-turned away as Theilo smoothly drew a laser pistol and shot the technician between the eyes. "Throw him out of the airlock." He commanded, twirling the pistol like a gunslinger and shoving it back in his utility belt.

Immediately, several soldiers grabbed the deceased technician and dragged him out of the bridge. Everyone was now paying sharp attention to Lord Theilo, afraid for their lives as well. He turned to the new head technician, the terrified wylas.

"Please, continue." He said pleasantly, stepping down from where he was standing next to the large monitor. Shaking, the newly appointed technician stood up and walked to the simulation.

"C-Continue simulation." He said, his dark green skin several shades lighter than normal. The space-time fabric in front of the diagram Black Ghost constricted and folded, and the ship started to travel across in a normal tesserect. Then, the tear in the fabric suddenly spread like lightning right into the fold as the ship was passing over it, catching the back of the ship. The ship began to wiggle like a snake with its tail caught. It wiggled from side to side, trying to get free. Just as it seemed that the ship was going to slide backward and be swallowed by the void beneath it, the rip snapped shut and the ship leaped forward across the fold, finally free. The simulation vanished from the room.

A silence filled the bridge as the technicians, soldiers and officers realized exactly how close to the black void beneath the fabric they had come. Lord Theilo stared critically at the screen. "I'm going down to Diagas- I want these computers running on full capacity figuring out what the zeck happened!" he ordered the technicians. They turned back to their computers, furiously running every test they could think of.

"Lieutenant General." Theilo called, walking back up onto the bridge. He stared out the large space glass window, at the rocky planet hovering below.

"Yes, my Lord?" She asked, running up behind him, halting, and standing at attention. She wondered what he wanted her to do- stay here and watch over the computer operations, or go with him down to Diagas?

"I want you to come with me down to Diagas. You remember President Fllasa?" he asked her. Alene nodded. She remembered all right. President Fllasa was one of the only men in the galaxy stupid (or brave, she wasn't sure which) enough to snub the Lord of War. She rather suspected that this would be their last visit with this president, since Theilo had just about had enough of the pompous, condescending man. However, even though he was seemingly harmless, Alene didn't trust Fllasa an inch. He had the look of a killer around him, a traitor. Actually, she suspected that this was why Theilo was going to get rid of him. The Lord of War did not like traitors.

"Well…" A smile tugged at the corner of Theilo's mouth. Alene gulped. This one was going to be nasty. "Let's just say that our friend will be very surprised to see me."

The Lieutenant General followed Theilo off the bridge and through the curving black halls of the ship to one of the many large hangars in the ship. Inside, a sleek, small black ship with light speed capabilities sat on its landing pad. This was the Eclipse, Lord Theilo's personal small starship. He had had it professionally commissioned by one of the finest shipbuilders in the galaxy. He had then had him killed and all the plans and computers carrying them burned, so that no one would know exactly how the ship was built. The Eclipse was the envy of the entire known galaxy.

Alene followed her Lord up the entrance ramp and into the sleek black cockpit. "Sit there." Theilo said, pointing at the copilot's seat. Alene lowered herself into it, impressed by how soft the seats were. She pulled the safety harness over her head, snapping it closed. Next to her, Theilo was running a systems check, to make sure that his most valuable possession was all right after the strange tesserect. When he was sure that his ship was fine, he started it up. The engine was quiet as a hummingbird and as smooth, too. Alene raised her eyebrows. "Nice bird, my Lord." She commented. Theilo nodded, his hands flying over the complicated controls. The ship lifted off, and zoomed out of the hangar into the black space outside. Alene instinctively grabbed for the armrest as Lord Theilo looped the ship repeatedly then went into a downward corkscrew. After doing that, he tilted the ship perpendicularly to the planet below him. Alene closed her eyes and uttered a silent prayer. She had flown with him before, and she knew what was coming next. Theilo pushed the throttle full forward, his dark eyes completely calm, and they shot vertically downward at about two thousand miles an hour. She had to bite her tongue to stop herself from screaming as they zoomed downward toward the planet. Theilo's face was calm, but a tightened muscle in his jaw and wrinkled brow showed exactly how concentrated he was. The ship flew downwards like the avenging Angel of Death at several thousand miles an hour. But the worst was still to come. As they entered the atmosphere vertically, already going ridiculously fast, Theilo cut the engines, grabbed his armrests, and the ship started to gather speed as they rushed through the atmosphere. At about ten thousand feet, he suddenly turned the engines on, grabbed the throttle, and yanked it back as far as it could go. They started slowing down, but not quickly enough, Alene realized. She closed her eyes as they neared the landing pad at four hundred miles an hour. When she didn't feel a crash, she opened her eyes. They were resting in a perfect landing on the pad on the side of President Fllasa's personal skyscraper. She let out a huge breath that she didn't realize she had been holding, and Theilo glanced at her. He didn't smile, but nodded at her, doing a post-flight check on the most expensive private starship in the galaxy.

Alene clambered out, immediately checking the perimeter for possible threats and escape routes, as a good guard always did. There were only two exit routes off the pad- off the side, and down several hundred feet, or through the small door on the side of the building. She walked over to the edge of the pad and carefully looked down. There were hundreds of buildings in this city, most of them with private pads. She had no idea how Theilo had managed to land on this specific one at several hundred miles an hour. He was one of the most skilled pilots she had ever seen, although one of the most hair-raising and dangerous to fly with.

Exiting the personal ship gracefully, Lord Theilo walked over to the small door in the side of the building. He didn't even glance down as he walked precariously close to the edge- Alene sighed and walked between him and the dangerous precipice. He had to be more careful… Although, he was more dangerous than almost anything or anyone else in existence. There was a rumor that he had taken down a fully grown wyleck by himself with only a laser pistol. While she highly doubted that, there was no mistaking that he was one of the most dangerous men she had ever met- politically, physically, and intellectually. Sharp as a laser blade and as deadly, too. Theilo was a man you would avoid crossing, at all costs. She had known him to have men executed over the most trivial matters. If you actually did something serious, such as disobeying a direct order, well… She shuddered, remembering the last Lieutenant General, Mosrey Uliath. Mosrey had disobeyed a direct order to destroy his home planet of Illiath. He had been left stranded on the airless moon orbiting the remains of his planet, with enough oxygen, food and water to last about three hours. Long enough to tear himself apart mentally. That had been nasty. If you actually betrayed Lord Theilo, well, there were only rumors of what he had done, but they were enough to make any decent person's hair stand on end.

Interrupting Alene's thoughts, Theilo knocked on the door sharply, glancing up at where he knew a camera was. "I know you can see me, Fllasa. Let me in, or I will have my cruiser bomb your building down." He said, as casually as if he was talking about the weather. After a couple seconds, the door opened slowly. Theilo and Alene cautiously entered, Alene first for security reasons.

"Theilo, Theilo, you can't just threaten me like that! You know I have a sensitive constitution. It's not healthy. Anyhow, what can I do for you?" President Fllasa said breezily, waving about large, red chunky hands. He was a human in his late thirties, with blond hair, a little blond goatee, blue eyes, a red complexion, and about 100 pounds overweight. Although he tried to be cheerful, he was deathly pale and sweating profusely.

The room they were in was luxurious. A huge, velvet hover-couch was in the middle of the oblong burgundy-colored room, on which Fllasa's considerable bulk was situated. The rug beneath their feet was burgundy and unbelievably thick and soft. Tasteful art adorned the gold-speckled burgundy wallpaper, and an actual wood hover table floated in front of the couch. Two hover-chairs were floating facing the couch, on the other side of the hover table. It was pleasant, but somehow reeked of rich evil- Like spoiled meat made to look pretty.

"Oh, I'm so rude! Please, my Lord, sit down." Fllasa said excitedly. Alene felt invisible, and stood next to Lord Theilo as he sat down and casually crossed one leg over the other. His large, pale hand rested on the armrest like a large spider.

"Fllasa-" Theilo began. Fllasa held up his hand, and Alene winced internally. You did not interrupt Theilo while he was talking. Ever, ever, ever.

"We cannot talk without a glass of wine! You, servant." Fllasa said, barking the last order at Alene herself. She stiffened, insulted to be treated as a servant. Theilo shook his head ever so slightly at her, and she sighed. Looked like she would have to deal with being treated like a servant for now.

"Go into the next room- There's a wine bottle and two glasses in there. Bring them in here and pour wine for us." Fllasa said. Gritting her teeth to hold herself back from retorting, Alene obeyed. In the next room, sitting on a steel hover table was a steel bucket filled with ice. Inside was a bottle of wine- dark red. Besides it sat two elegantly shaped wineglasses made of crystal.

Alene snorted. The poisoning attempt was so see-through that it was almost ridiculous- He hadn't even re-wrapped the foil on the wine bottle. Of course, the question now was what to do. She could leave it in the kitchen, or bring it in.

"Hurry up, servant!" Fllasa called impatiently. Lord Theilo called out as well: "It's all right, servant. Bring the p- wine in." Alene nodded, Theilo's meaning clear. He knew it was poisoned, yet he still wanted her to bring it in. He also wanted her to stay in the servant role- That way she could listen in on their conversation and Fllasa wouldn't worry about her talking. Servants customarily had their tongues cut out in these day and times, in case they heard sensitive information. This way, she could listen and give Theilo feedback, if he wanted it. Theilo was well aware of Alene's "negotiation" skills- She had developed the skill of being able to listen to a conversation and know nearly everything about a person by what they said, how they said it, and their accent. She also was a walking polygraph test, and could immediately tell the lie from the truth.

Grabbing the wine bottle and glasses, she walked into the lounge, silently setting them on the table. Pressing a button on the bottle that made the cork pop out, she poured a measure of wine into each glass. Then she handed a glass to both Fllasa and Theilo, and then retired to her position sitting next to Theilo's chair. Fllasa sipped at his wine, but Theilo did not touch his. In this day and age, there were many poisons that would not harm the poisoner. She suspected that this poison was a DNA- breaker. It was engineered to attack the DNA of the poisoned, erasing it and causing a slow and painful death, first by attacking the blood, then the digestive systems, then the respiratory tract, then the skin. She had seen people die from it before, and it was not a pretty sight at all. It was Fllasa's style- A slow, painful death with no discernable cause. It also did not have any distinct odor or color, so it could be added to any food or drink without detection.

"So, Theilo, my friend, tell me. Why have you honored my humble personage with your presence today?" Fllasa asked, settling into the couch.

Theilo smirked, setting down his poisoned glass. "I've come to give you one last chance, Fllasa." He said softly, leaning forward.

The effect of Theilo's words on Fllasa was remarkable. First his skin turned from red, to white, to green, then to a sort of grayish blotchy purple color. His hand began to shake, and wine spilled on the carpet.

"L- Last ch -chance?" he stuttered. "W- What do you mean?" He looked like death, Alene thought. The Lord of War could have that effect on people.

"Yes. I know your involvement in trying to sap my funds for your use, along with several other people. I've already dealt with them- you haven't heard from them in quite a while, have you?" Theilo had a look on his face like a cat playing with a mouse- he was quite enjoying himself.

Fllasa did not look as pleased as Theilo. In fact, he looked like he might keel over from a heart attack soon: he was gasping for air and scrabbling uselessly at the arm of his couch. "I- I didn't do that!" he said lamely, panicked.

"Add that to the fact you tried to poison me…" Theilo commented smoothly, calmly, his demeanor in sharp contrast to Fllasa's.

"I- a misunderstanding- I- he told me to-" Fllasa said wildly, his eyes wide. He was now gasping for air like a fish out of water, vainly trying to calm himself down.

"So. I took the liberty of taking back my money, plus all the payments you missed." Theilo said, and with a satisfied air, drew a bank statement out of his pocket and tossed it across. He sat back, finished playing with his mouse. The statement was his death stroke.

And death stroke it was. Fllasa caught the paper, and the last color left his face. "You- You- I- my bank!" he gasped. He clawed at his chest with heaving breaths, eyes wide, mouth foaming. Then, he was gone. His head slumped back against the couch, and he saw no more.

Theilo nodded with a satisfied air, and got up, straightening his armored shirt. "Get the statement." He said to Alene. She reached out, shuddering, and grabbed the statement from his dead hand. Then she ran up to join Lord Theilo as he walked out of the door. He seemed preoccupied, so she didn't bother him as they entered his spacecraft and turned it on. She noticed that he didn't do a pre-flight check, which was odd. Also, he seemed to be hurrying through the startup. When he did take off, it was at a speed that was extremely fast, even for him. And no daredevil stunts this time, she noticed. Just straight up through the atmosphere. When they had gotten far enough out, Theilo stopped the ship and turned it to face the planet. Far below, on the planet's surface, a mushroom cloud bloomed into the sky, expanding and blowing up the entire city. The fire of the blast reflected in Theilo's dark blue eyes and lighting up his face. As she glanced over at him, his face almost in a religious expression as he watched a hundred thousand people die, Alene reflected that he, indeed, was the true Lord of War.

Chapter Two: Curses and Rewards

The three crow- people cawed raucously, seeming extremely out of place as they swooped through the serene beauty of the silent twilight plane. Ahead and slightly below them lay a black gate hanging in the sky, seemingly made of black, twisted barbed wire. An aura of menace seemed to hang around it, muddying the twilight beauty around it with a tinge of something that looked like smoke. As the crow- people approached it, it swung open silently to reveal a black hole in the twilight sky. They swooped through, cackling and chattering in foul voices. It was black as pitch, yet they flew as if they knew exactly where they were going.

"Which angel was that, siblings?" One of them asked, swooping high above the others. "We kill so many that I've lost count." He grinned, showing yellowed teeth.

"The Twilight angel, brother Yellowtooth. Her name was Katana. Too bad we didn't get to eat her, though." Another one replied, laughing.

"Her skin was so pretty and soft- she would have been good, brother Nightshade. But He will reward us for our services." The last one replied, placing an almost reverent emphasis on the word "He". She had the vague look of a woman about her, at least in her body shape and her voice.

"Yes, sister Blackclaw. He will reward us well." Yellowtooth responded. He seemed to be the leader. Nightshade and Blackclaw flew behind and a little below him, and he was the biggest and strongest- looking.

As he spoke, they emerged into a huge stone cavern with a city in the middle of it. But not like any normal city. Here things that looked as if they had once been human scurried about- sometimes on all fours or bent over. There were similarities between some of them, as if they had mutated somewhat the same. The buildings were large and covered with soot- smokestacks spouted black smoke into the air, so that it became almost unbreathable. The creatures that scurried about were carrying things, boxes. They ran in and out of what appeared to be factories- but these were no ordinary factories. Inside, impossibly huge boilers and furnaces belched flames. If a creature fell in, they merely screamed in an inhuman voice, then jumped out, more mutilated than ever. Sometimes the fires would stay burning on their bodies for days before they went out, prolonging the tortures. The creatures fed the furnaces with what seemed to be parts of- well, let's just say parts and leave it at that. The furnaces seemed to heat huge forges, where unrealistically huge pieces of metal were made red hot, then fashioned into pieces of strange, bizarre buildings by more creatures chained to a giant hammer. They would drag it back to raise it, and then have to jump forward and hope for the best as it fell. Periodically, one of them would get caught under the giant hammer, but after their bodies were crushed, they would become reassembled and walk back to their place in line.

As the crow brethren flew by, the creatures turned and stared at them with blank eyes, recoiling from pure terror. Some of them dropped their loads and fell to the ground, where they curled up into balls. As soon as they did, the blackened pavement beneath them turned to molten magma, scorching their skin and forcing them to their feet again. The others looked on helplessly as their comrades were burnt and mutilated, forced to watch the eternal pain and suffering and some spell keeping them from assisting each other.

The buildings in the city were twisted, wrong-looking, as if some architect had drawn on the deepest regions of his subconscious nightmares and brought forth a sick menagerie of blackened, twisted structures that seemed to leer down at the twisting, narrow streets. The crow-people flew over them, reveling in the blackened, poison air, suffering, and misery. Ahead of them lay the strangest, most wrong-looking building of all. It looked like a surrealist painting, drawn out of a twisted premonition. It was a giant head- but no ordinary head. The forehead was covered with dozens of eyes, all of them seeming to glare out at the hellish plane below them. The nose was non-existent, two vertical slits that spewed fire and smoke. The mouth was stretched in an eternal, frozen, horrified scream that you could almost hear ringing through the air. There was no hair, but instead, the same features were repeated constantly over the face, but not always in the same order. They moved around constantly, eyes blinking, mouths moving throughout the head, nostrils shooting flame in all directions. The crow- brethren flew towards it, finally swooping into a mouth as it passed in front of them. Inside, stone tunnels wound in convoluted patterns, twisting through the inside of the head like an ant's tunnel. Every so often it would widen out into a room, and then shrink back down. It was intensely claustrophobic, confusing, panicking. They flew straight, until they reached the largest room of all. The walls were black, splashed with an unpleasant reddish color, and the floor was carpeted with some hairy pinkish material. Demons of all types and sizes swarmed about, talking in voices enough to make a grown man cry like a child, or scream like a woman. The crow- people folded their wings and landed, walking upright like humans. A snake- demon with wings hustled up to them, his body twisting sinuously, his five forked tongues sliding out of his mouth and spewing snakes. "The Masssster issss not here. What newsssss, carrion- eatersssss?" he asked, his red- slitted eyes glowing in the semi-darkness.

Yellowtooth glanced at his sister and brother, and then spoke. "We have killed the Twilight Angel, as He asked us to. You're Quetzal?" He said, grinning and showing his teeth.

The snake- demon nodded his huge head, several more snakes spewing out of his mouth. Nightshade caught one in midair and ate it noisily. Quetzal glared at him, and he shrugged carelessly, but didn't do it again. "The Masssster issss away on… busssinesss. Appearssss that there isss a ssssoul he wantsssss. A very… sssspecial ssssoul." He hissed, pausing. Then he spoke again. "Although, he told me what to do if you got back before he did, if you were sssucessssful."

The crows looked at each other in eager expectation. Visions of power, new bodies, and other things danced immorally in their heads. This is what they wanted.

"He ssssaid to give you thessse. Follow me." The demon said. The followed him, walking a bit clumsily since they were used to flying, out the room. He led them down a set of stairs into a workshop. Three suits of armor lay on the table, all custom made for the crow-creatures. They ran forward, nearly falling down, and examined them. They were black steel, with strange, glowing red symbol on them. "Thessse are sssuits of hell-armor. Very rare, very ssstrong." Quetzal explained as the carrion-eaters put them on excitedly. "But." He said once they had them on, "If you do not follow hissss orderssss, or fail in a missssion, the sssuit will conssssstrict and kill you."

Nightshade, Yellowfang, and Blackclaw turned and tried to attack him, but before they could do so, the throat of their armor constricted, causing them to stop. After a minute or so, they released, allowing the nearly suffocated creatures to breathe. They glared at the snake- demon, rubbing their throats. He shrugged, (if it is possible for a snake to shrug), and tapped his armored body with his nose.

"I have the sssame armor as well. He likesss to make ssssure that Hissss sservantssss do not disssobey Him." He told the angry siblings. They merely glared and stalked back up into the large room. Quetzal followed them, his great body rippling as he traveled up the stairs.

Chapter Three: Katana

Alene was silent on the return trip, thinking about what had happened. She didn't know if she could take this anymore- the killing, deception, lies, living every moment perilously close to death. She resolved to leave the army, to find another job. This whole thing was just too much. She could slip away in the dead of night- she knew how to do it in a way so Theilo would never be able to hunt her down. She could lead a normal life, leave all the guilt and killing of two lives behind. A fresh start, never to look back at her old lives. Either the one she was in now- a servant to a killing machine- or the one she had had before this- a gang member in the worst part of the worst planet in the galaxy. Still… She glanced over at Theilo, who was preoccupied with flying the ship. His silver hair was ruffled by the ship's ventilation systems, dark blue eyes thoughtful. He was almost handsome, in a cold, untouchable kind of way… She cut short that line of thought, reminding herself that he was a heartless, brutal killer, just like Alex. He had no feelings, no soul. Still, she couldn't help but wonder about him. Where had he come from? What was full name? Was Theilo even his real last name? He was so mysterious, so cold. Had he always been like he was, or had he once been able to feel some sort of emotion? Alene sighed inwardly, scolding herself. She shouldn't ask questions like that, they were dangerous. And besides, she should leave anyway, before… Before she became like Theilo. A heartless killer. Like she had been… She forced those memories back, not wanting to remember that time in her life as they neared the Black Ghost.

Theilo gently touched down in the hangar, running his hands over the controls of his ship almost lovingly as they left. They disembarked from the Eclipse and hurried back up to the bridge. The technicians were still working furiously to trace what exactly had happened in the strange tesserect, shouting orders to the computers. As Theilo and Alene entered, they fell silent, glancing nervously at each other.

"Give me a brief summary of what exactly happened." Theilo ordered them as he descended into the computer terminals. They glanced uneasily at one another. No one spoke. Theilo glanced around and sighed. "Speak or I will throw you all out of the airlock." He threatened them. The head technician gulped and stood up, turning on the overhead monitor.

"We think that it was an… overlapping." He said nervously as the system booted up. Theilo frowned and Alene walked over to the technician. "An overlapping… Of what?" she asked him. The poor wylas swallowed. "Of- dimensions." He squeaked nervously. Beads of perspiration glistened on his forehead as Theilo raised one eyebrow.

"Dimensions." Theilo repeated blankly, his face carefully emotionless. The technician nodded, nearly shaking with fear and anxiety.

"Yes. I know that it may sound… strange. But it's true. We ran tests and it seems like some other space-time fabric brushed up against ours and opened a rift. That's what they said, honest." He responded, beads of sweat rolling down his brow. There was a long silence, and Alene turned her head slightly away, anticipating the death of the poor technician.

"I believe you." Theilo said quietly, scanning the monitors. The silence that followed was so all -encompassing you could have heard a pin drop. When no one did anything else except stare, he continued. "I have long suspected the existence of other planes, dimensions, as you call them. I've had some tests ran, experiments run, but they have yielded nothing. This-" He tapped the overhead monitor, where the incredibly complicated results of several incredibly complicated tests were. They appeared in 3-D in the middle of the room. "This is what I've been looking for, for a long, long time." He said, walking forward to it and calculating the equations in his head.

As he finished, there was a beeping noise from one of the monitors. It wasn't very loud, but it was certainly persistent. Theilo nodded at one of the technicians, his meaning clear, and the human quickly ran over to the screen and tapped it a couple times.

"Appears that there is an object approximately an Earth- mile from the ship releasing an enormous amount of energy." The technician reported, looking anxiously around at lord Theilo. She was a typical specimen of a pure kilas, with long silver hair, tall, slim stature, and extremely pale skin. Kilas lived in the depths of deep, deep space, where there were only a handful of planets. There was hardly any sunlight, so their skin didn't have any melanin or coloring at all. Her eyes were strange, too- the dark, dark blue of Theilo's, but larger and darker, with no pupils at all.

"What kind of energy?" The Lieutenant General asked. She was extremely skeptical of this whole "other worlds" thing- it seemed like just a bunch of hokey to her.

"I- I don't know. It's similar to nuclear, but- much, much more powerful." The technician replied, her fingers flying over the screen like crazy, her brow wrinkled. "The energy trail is extremely intense- it's blocking all air traffic. And it's very small. About the size of a large human. Do you want me to send a shuttle out, my Lord?"

Theilo nodded. "Yes, and step on it. Tell all pilots in the area to stay back, or else." He replied, settling down in a conveniently placed chair. Alene stood by a chair while Theilo reclined for the second time in two hours- it was getting on her nerves, but she didn't show it. She stood by him as he watched the technicians busy themselves with getting a shuttle out, his tapping fingers encouraging them on, and hinting at a horrible fate if they didn't.

"The shuttle's on its way, my Lord." The head technician informed him a minute later. "It should be back in no time. If at all possible, it will transport the object back with it." Though he sounded confident, a nervous tick on his brow showed exactly how stressed out he was.

"It should be." Theilo said pleasantly. If you hadn't known him, it would have sounded like a joke, or a friendly reminder. It was really a carefully veiled threat, Alene reflected, hidden inside a simple statement. Theilo reminded her of a cobra sometimes- he seemed harmless at first glance, but once you got to know him, his poison was deadly, his temper short, and power almost unlimited. Theilo could get away with almost any crime in the galaxy with nary a scratch. When others would be called criminals, he was praised as "daring" and "courageous". How little everyone knew… She wished that she had chosen a different life. It had seemed promising at first- the pay was excellent, lots of job perks. Theilo had even seemed pleasant at first. But after while, the illusion wore off and you realized what a mess you were in. By that time, however, you were stuck, you had to work for ten more years before you could get out. And deserters were treated extremely harshly. Oh, it didn't seem so bad at first. You just ignored what you were able to, and tried to live a (relatively) normal life. But after a while, you just couldn't fool yourself anymore. It wasn't possible to live with Lord Theilo for any extended period of time and not see a lot of murder, crime, deals, and just horrible things go on. He hired some of the worst creeps of the galaxy, too. Ruffians, murderers, and the like. Again Alene found herself wondering what Theilo's life had been like, who he really was. A human/kilas mix… It was not exactly forbidden, but highly looked down upon, even eight hundred years after the humans and kilas had first made contact. That fateful day… Alene had always loved history, whenever she could catch a bit of it. She still remembered the story. As they waited impatiently for the shuttle to come back, she could see in her mind's eye the ancient documentary videos…

_The year had been 2010. The humans had been at the height of their culture- the peak of the computer age. A re__volutionary new scanning seismograph compute__r had been invented that could pick up the sound of a pin dropping on the other side of the world. The human race had marveled at their extraordinarily advanced culture, at their fabulous computers.__ Then the computer, on the day it had been on display, had picked up the sound of a kilas ship transmission, and actually produced a hologram of a kilas ship. The whole world had gone ballistic, humans had panicked. The military had armed themselves heavily- Then the kilas arrived on planet Earth. It was a scientific mission- they were interested in the human race and world as whole. They had landed in a football stadium (the Buffalo Sabers vs. the Wisconsin Packers) during a game, and immediately been surrounded by the military. They had been lead to a high-security compound, it had been made sure that they had no weapons, then all the best translators and linguists in the world had been brought. It had taken days for them to understand the kilas and the kilas them- They both knew numbers, which made things much, much easier. Things had progressed well- they had shown the kilas around the planet, let them collect data, and the kilas in return had given them technology. It was the kilas's last day on earth when they had caught sight of a war on television. They had asked what it was. The humans had been shocked and amused. "It's a war." The President of the United States had said. "In Iraq." The aliens had asked what war was. The President unsure of what to do, had thought for a minute. "It's- when two nations disagree, and attack each other. With armies. Physical forces." The aliens had been floored. Did the humans attack, kill each other, just because of a disagreement? The President had blushed. "We're a young species. We're still learning." She had assured them. They had asked how old the human culture was. "Oh, about five thousand years." The President had said. The kilas had been shocked again, amazed at how far the humans had progressed. They had, they said, had wars, too, but long, long, long ago, __tens of thousands of years in the past. Their culture, they had said, about one hundred thousand years old. _

"They're back." The head technician said, interrupting Alene's memories. Lord Theilo got to his feet, indicating that Alene, the head technician, and the kilas technician come with him. They headed over to the hangar, the silence so thick that you could have cut it with a knife.

"What did you find?" Theilo asked as the pilots stumbled off the shuttle, their faces white as paper, eyes as large as dinner plates.

"A-A-A-A" One of them tried to say. He tried again. "A-A-A-" Theilo did not give him time to finish, shooting him in the chest and turning to the other pilot, who seemed calmer.

"A very… strange being, my Lord." He responded, leading Theilo, Alene, and the head technician into the spacecraft. In the back, laying in a quarantine pod, was…

"Good God!" Alene burst out. The creature was… There was no other word for it… an angel. Her skin seemed to be made of molten silver, the huge wings protruding from her back were the darkest purple. Her glassy eyes were solid purple, with no pupils at all. And her black hair was blacker than anything Alene had ever seen. Theilo stared at the beautiful creature, entranced by its celestial beauty. "Bring it to med- bay." He ordered them all. "This creature is worth more than all of you put together, so be careful!"

They carefully lifted the creature out, feeling its oddly warm skin and surprisingly light weight. It's skin seemed soft, but was incredibly tough. Indeed, when Alene accidentally scraped it with her fingernail, her fingernail broke, not scratching the creature's skin at all. She stared in astonishment, feeling how light it was. It must have only weight fifty pounds or so. "It must have hollow bones." The pilot remarked, carefully placing her on a medivac droid, which whizzed away to the medical bay. They followed it at a much more sedate pace, arriving at the med bay within a couple minutes.

Already the droid had placed the angel in a bed, where a human doctor was bent over her, mouth agape. "This… This…" he managed to say. He was balding, with black hair, friendly brown eyes, and an unshaven shin and upper lip.

"Is a new species. I know." Theilo responded, gazing down at her reverently. In his mind, he wondered what he could do with a horde of creatures such as this. If they could survive in space, they could survive anything. They would be the ultimate soldiers, striking terror into the hearts of those being attacked, swooping down from the skies… He could picture it now, the angel- creatures storming the central planet and terrorizing all those there, spreading death and destruction…

His brutal thoughts were cut short when the angel sat bolt upright, gasping for air. As soon as she saw the humans around her, she leaped out of the bed and crouched in the corner, eyes darting to and fro, breathing heavily. When the doctor tried to get near her, she hissed and swung a wing at him, her eyes wild and scared. She seemed like a caged beast, glaring wildly at them all.

"" She spat, in a tongue so musical and beautiful. It sounded like the ringing of a clear crystal bell over the peaceful hills and valleys of a small town on a winter afternoon. Theilo held up his hands, gazing calmly at her. She frowned and gestured at all of them.

"" She asked, waving her hands around at all of them. Theilo nodded, and spoke clearly. To Theilo, her voice sounded like standing on a battlefield, surveying the defeated enemy.

"Human." He said, indicating himself, Alene, and the doctor. "Kilas." He pointed at the head technician, who swallowed nervously and eyed the angel anxiously. He did not look happy to meet her.

"Theilo." He added, pointing again at himself. He nodded at the others, who also said their names. "Alene." Alene said, pointing at herself. She liked this angel creature.. especially her voice. It reminded her of flying a spaceship, not knowing where you were going, but just going somewhere, a song singing in your heart, fire pounding through your veins.

"Lizacan." The technician said, trembling. To him, her voice sounded like a tranquil, moonlit night with no Theilo ordering him around or threatening him and his family.

"Doctor Yesha." The doctor said. To him, the angel's voice sounded like a crackling fire in a hearth, a good book, and a cat on his lap. He loved those kind of days, but rarely got them now.

The angel nodded, looking at each of them in return. After a moment's pause, she slowly and carefully pointed to herself and said "Katana. Angel." Then she waved her hands around, indicating the room and ship in general. She tilted her head in question.

Theilo frowned. How to explain what a starship was, or for that matter, what space was. "Ship." He said, moving his hand like a starship through the air. Katana frowned and repeated the general indication, but then put her hands on top of one another, indicating something… "Level… Plane…" Theilo asked, prompting her. The creature jumped and nodded at the word plane. Theilo nearly lost his lunch. This creature knew about planes! And how had she learned Standard by just listening to them talk? She indicated the higher of her hands and the lower of her hands, then looking at him, head tilted to one side. She was asking which plane she was on, Theilo realized.

"Milky Way." Theilo responded. The angel's eyes widened, and she became pale. "?" she asked faintly, holding her head in her hands. She was so powerful, so majestic, yet seemed to be so innocent and naïve.

"I'm sorry, we can't understand your language." Alene responded. "How can you understand us?" she added, glancing at Lord Theilo, who nodded. The angel contemplated this for a moment, looking at all of them. Then she gestured at her head.

"." She responded, tapping her head and then her ear. Alene nodded. Perhaps she listened, or learned, very quickly. She had gotten a lot off of the angel's way of speaking, even if she couldn't understand the angel's language. It seemed like she was con fused at how she had gotten there, not sure if she could trust them. She seemed like she wanted something.

"Thay- lo?" Katana asked. She waved her hands at the others then pointed at him. He frowned. What did she mean… ah! "Yes, I am the leader, the commander of the Black Ghost." He replied. "Where are you from?" he was curious about her, wondering where she had come from and if she would help him. His mind was already whizzing at how to turn her to his advantage.

"Katana…" She seemed to be struggling to convey her complicated ideas, frustrated at her lack of words. "Plane…" she pointed up, then made her hand into a fist and made it fall through the air. Theilo nodded. "You fell? From a plane above us?" he asked her. She nodded excitedly. "Katana fell." She affirmed. Theilo frowned. "What made you fall?" he asked. She sucked in her breath and frowned. She gestured like she was writing something.

"Bring her a pad and digi- pen." Theilo said. Immediately the doctor handed one to him, and he handed it to Katana. She took the pen, and immediately started drawing. After a minute or so, she finished and held it up so they could see. There was a beautiful twilight sky, and Katana was flying through it. Three ugly, misshapen creatures that looked like half-crow, half human were attacking her. Katana indicated herself falling. Theilo nodded. She had been attacked, and fell.

Katana gestured at the picture, then herself. "Katana- plane above us." She said, using the phrase that Theilo had said before. Alene frowned. "How would you get there?" she asked the frustrated angel. Katana frowned, indicating the air. She made her two hands flatten and go above each other, then made the hand below go up top. When they all stared puzzledly at her, she held up four fingers and said "Planes." Theilo nodded. Four planes… "But how do you get to where you came from?" he asked her. Katana frowned, indicating a hole and her going through it. But then she made the hole close, then open, then close, then open. She made it do this all throughout the air. Theilo glanced at Alene, the language whiz, for help. She stared as Katana did it again, then spoke slowly. "I think she means that there's a portal, but it's hard to get into. And you don't know where it will take you in the end." After she finished speaking, she glanced at Katana, who nodded happily.

"" she said, smiling at Alene. Alene smiled back, then frowned. "I think… I might have understood some of that." She said slowly. "Could you repeat that?" Katana nodded, and spoke again, more slowly. "" she repeated, slowly. Alene watched Katana's lips closely. "I think that she said something about humans. And maybe learning. Her language isn't that different from ours." She explained to everyone around her at large. Theilo nodded as Alene pointed to herself and asked "" Katana nodded and smiled at Alene.

The "negotiations" went on for about another half an hour. Theilo learned that Katana had been, apparently, going somewhere when she fell. Alene could not decipher Katana's explanations for where she had been going, and Katana had grown increasingly frustrated with her limited use of the human language. Finally, they all withdrew, allowing the tired angel to sleep. Theilo was quiet on his walk back to the bridge, thinking about the angel and the consequences of what she had said. Alene was still bowled over that these "other planes" actually existed, and that she had actually met a creature from one of them. It was just blowing her mind away. She walked around the bridge monitoring activities like a person in a dream.

Theilo meanwhile barked some orders to the officers on the bridge and headed off to the Communication Room to talk to his General and to think. His boots made a slight clanging sound as he walked through the corridors to the Comm. Room, walking on the metallic floor. His mind wandered to the angel creature, that powerful, celestial being. What he could do with a hundred of those creatures! He decided to detain the creature from leaving for as long as necessary, or…. He halted in the middle of the hall, his mind ringing. He could… He smiled like a wolf in sight of a fat, lazy deer. He had found a way to get those hundred troops, to get more of the angels. He could help her get back, then demand payment. Theilo resumed walking, the predatory smile still hovering on his lips. Yes… He halted in front of the Comm. room, then entered. He sat down in a leather chair, leaned back, closed his eyes, and ran his hands through his silvery hair. A sadness he never let anyone else see spread throughout his features, a sort of weariness. The Comm. room was black, with a ring of leather chairs around a central holo-pad. Theilo sighed and leaned forward to push the button that would call his General. General Letar was out in the field, governing the recently conquered planet of Renaras. As Theilo's hand was about to connect with the button, a perfectly manicured soft, white human hand stopped him. Theilo looked up, surprised, then frowned at the man standing before him.

The intruder was dressed in a black silk business suit that looked like it had taken five years of a working man's salary to commission. He had a red silk tie underneath that, perfectly pressed and folded. His eyes were the clearest blue that Theilo had ever seen, a blue that just went on and on and on into their icy depths. His hair was black, and slicked back against his head. On his neck he wore a silver chain with a sterling silver cross hanging on it. He was tall, about Theilo's height, and was in perfect physical condition.

"Hello, Iroras." The man said, smiling and holding out a perfect hand. His voice was soft, well-spoken, and educated. Underneath it, however, there was a hint of ice and fire. Theilo, who had been prepared for about anything, felt the ground drop out from beneath him. How had this man known his first name?! He dropped his hand from where he had been about to draw a weapon. This man was an enemy to contend with, but he could be made an ally.

"What do you want?" Theilo asked. The man smiled again, an innocent gesture that somehow made Theilo shiver. He sat down in the chair opposite Theilo. "You might say it's a business proposal." He said, leaning back and crossing one leg over the other. Theilo nodded, looking the man up and down. Wealthy businessman, perhaps. Wise in the shady dealings of the galaxy.

"I've had my eye on you for some time, Theilo." The man said, looking Theilo straight in the eye and straightening his tie. "You have shown real talent in… persuasion and business deals, shall we say?" Theilo acknowledged this with a slight nod of his head and a ghost of a smile upon his lips.

"And I want to cut a deal with you. Simply put, I will give you power." The man said, examining his manicured hands. Theilo fought to not show it, but he was already bought. Offer him power and Theilo would do most anything for it. It was part of his nature. "Everyone says that. What's the price?" Theilo asked casually, leaning back in his chair.

The business man smiled. Theilo was his kind of guy, lusting after power, doing anything for it. And not afraid to get his hands dirty. "I want you." he said quietly, smiling again. For a brief moment, a vision of incredible power showed through his clear blue eyes, making Theilo listen more attentively to him.

Theilo glanced uneasily at the man. "Me?" he asked. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something about this businessman that made him uneasy. Perhaps it was his manner, or that hint of dark power about his personage. Maybe the damned souls that seemed to swirl in his eyes? But the man made Theilo decidedly nervous. It was the first time Theilo had felt nervous since his seventh birthday.

The man nodded, playing with the cross around his neck. It was a reminder, the only time he had failed. He wouldn't let this fish slip through his fingers, no. He hadn't gotten someone like this since… "Yes. It's quite simple, really. You just sign your name here- (he pulled out a piece of parchment, on which a contract was written in blood-red letters)- and I will help you. Give you power. Trust me, I have a wide range of influence." He paused, then held up a hand. "But." Theilo glanced at the strange man uneasily. There was always a price... "If I ask you to do something, a small favor, you have to. Or… Well, let's just say you cannot _imagine_ what would happen to you." He laughed softly. That laugh made the hairs on the back of Theilo's neck stand straight up, and he shivered.

"What will it be, "Lord of War"?" He asked, holding out the parchment. There was a silence in the room as Theilo stared at the paper. Slowly, as if in a dream, he slowly reached out and took the paper, eyebrows shooting up as he saw that it was actual paper. An antique. The business man silently handed Theilo a fountain pen. "You don't need ink." The man said softly. Theilo shrugged, and put the pen on the paper. As he signed his name, he felt a stinging sensation on the back of his hand. He ignored it, but when he handed the paper back to the strange visitor, he saw his name was cut into the back of his hand. And his signature… It was signed in blood. His eyes widened, and for the first time in his life, felt a little afraid.

"Thank you..." The man said, reading Theilo's signature. He touched Theilo's still-wet blood, and the back of Theilo's hand began to burn uncontrollably. A spidery black signature appeared below Theilo's, but he couldn't read it, partly because of its size, but mostly because of the fiery pain in his hand. Theilo gritted his teeth, then saw that a pattern in the shape of a flaming cross was being etched into his flesh, on the back of his hand. He glanced wildly at the strange man, who merely smiled and put the parchment into his suit coat.

The burning stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and Theilo gasped sharply. "If a servant of yours ever comes calling, who would they say sent them?" he asked, standing up and clutching his hand. The man, who had stood up and was collecting a suitcase from beside his chair, straightened up and smiled. "They will say… Nicholas sent them." He said, and for a brief moment, flames and tortured souls screamed and swirled in the icy depths of his eyes. Then he was gone, leaving Theilo standing in the middle of the room, utterly bewildered.

Theilo collapsed into the leather chair, burying his face in his hands. What had just happened? He had signed away his name, under the spell of some powerful man named Nicholas… He took a few deep breaths, and pressed the button on the holo-comm. After a few moments, his general, a young Illiath named Persas, was standing there. Theilo liked Persas, he showed real potential to become a leader. Of course, if Persas ever made any moves to get rid of Theilo, or usurp him, Theilo would have no qualms about killing him. Illiath were fairly human- like, in the fact that they were bipedal creatures with two arms and two legs. But the similarities ended there. Illiath's eyes were huge, taking up perhaps half of their faces, and dark. They were tall, too, about six feet on average. Their arms and legs were long and multi-jointed, and they had eight fingers on each hand. They vaguely resembled overgrown spiders. "Persas. Field report." Theilo snapped.

"Quite well, my Lord. The locals were… disruptive… at first, but they soon learned after a little… persuasion." Persas grinned, showing his two rows of sharp teeth. Theilo nodded. "And how is the battle on the east plains?" he asked.

"We crushed them, my lord. They never stood a chance. We utterly destroyed them. Victory will soon be ours!" Theilo resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Persas did like the theatrics. Theilo had come near to shooting him a couple times for his impertinence, but Persas always checked himself at the last minute. One of these days, he was going to go too far…

"Right. I will call you in another two days. Call me only if something goes drastically wrong. What is it, Persas?" Persas had been clearing his throat and shuffling his feet while Theilo spoke. If he had been there, he would have been dead. "Well, there have been a couple ships. Unauthorized ships. That were able to slip into orbit." Persas mumbled. Theilo kept his emotions at bay. If Persas had been in the conference room, he would not have lasted for another moment. As it was, Theilo was thinking of hiring an assassin… "Unauthorized ships." Theilo said, carefully keeping his face blank. He felt his hands squeezing the arm of his chair. Then, he felt a snap. He looked down. The hand with the fiery cross on it had broken off the titanium arm of the leather chair. He blinked down at it, then shook his head and directed his attention back to the unlucky Illiath.

"Y-Yes, my Lord." Persas squeaked. Theilo slowly stood up and walked over to the hologram. "They could have gone to join the Senate. Reported our battle tactics. Strategies." He said softly.

Persas realized exactly how much trouble he was in as Theilo slowly reached out and attempted to throttle the hologram, then turned it off.

He stared at his hand in amazement, slowly flexing it and turning it in the light. Whoever that "Nicholas" had been, he had given Theilo power already. He felt good. Very good… Slowly, Theilo pulled his fist back, then sent it into the wall. It punched a hole through five inches of steel and titanium. Theilo smiled, his eyes narrowing and canine teeth showing. He liked this… He liked this very much. What he could do now… As he flexed his hand, he accidentally touched it with his other hand. It burned for a second, then a sort of a hologram of Nicholas appeared in front of Theilo. "I almost forgot, Theilo." He said nonchalantly. "You give that angel to me, and you will win the galaxy. Forever. Power, you and your descendants ruling over the galaxy for all eternity." Theilo blinked at him, his mind turning it over. He had been planning on using the angels to conquer the galaxy, but if he got the galaxy anyway… Besides, Nicholas had signed the contract, too. He had a feeling that that parchment was binding in more ways than one…

Theilo nodded, glancing at the hologram incredulously. "I'll give you the angel." He said, inclining his head at Nicholas. Nicholas smiled again, causing Theilo to shiver. "Good. Go with her when she leaves, and let her lead you where she thinks she needs to go. When the time comes, you'll know what to do."

Then the hologram was gone, leaving with no trace behind it. Theilo blinked at where it had been, then stared down at the fiery cross on the back of his hand. The cut had healed, and it appeared to be etched onto his hand in fire. So, deliver the angel… He closed his hand into a fist and grinned. He was going to do it, no matter what.

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Theilo walked back out onto the bridge fifteen minutes later, a black silk glove now covering his right hand, and consequently, his strange tattoo. He nodded at the technicians and walked up to his lieutenant general. "Nikas. Get me Smoke." He ordered her. Alene blinked. Smoke was the most deadly assassin in the galaxy- someone was very unlucky right about now. She kept her face carefully emotionless, hiding her disgust of Theilo's evil nature. "Yes, my Lord." She said, saluting and walking over to a comm. link. She typed Shadow's room number in- He was kept on the ship, as a sort of gun being held to the officer's heads. No one cared to think what Shadow would do to them if Theilo asked him to "be creative". Shadow liked the slow, painful death.

"Shadow, Lord Theilo desires your presence on the bridge." Alene said into it. There was a pause as Shadow thought about how to respond. "Very well. I will be there soon." He said back, his soft silky voice making the hairs on the back of Alene's neck stand up. She clicked the off button on the comm., and turned to Lord Theilo. "He'll be here in a moment." She said to Theilo. Theilo frowned and shook his head. "Actually, I have a better idea." He said softly. "Tell him not to come." Alene nodded, puzzled, and turned to the Comm. again. "Um, Shadow, Lord Theilo has changed his mind." She said, wincing at how lame she had sounded. There was a brief pause. "Very well." Shadow said quietly, then clicked off his mike. Alene swallowed, and turned to Theilo.

"You are going to have a little fun, Lieutenant General Nikas." He said, flexing his right hand. Alene gulped. Theilo's idea of fun wasn't her idea of fun. At all. Theilo turned and addressed the tech crew. "Tesserect to Renaras." He barked. The crew jumped to attention, set the tesserect, and within moments, they were frozen, then moving again. Alene breathed an internal sigh of relief that nothing had gone wrong this time. She walked over to the front of the window. Ahead of them was the jungle planet of Renaras. It was a hostile environment, and the native people- a race that resembled cockroaches- were extraordinarily tough. Alene did not envy the General's posting at all. So full of these thoughts Alene did not catch onto Theilo's brutal plan. He walked over to the tech center and ordered them quietly to ready the planet- laser. Then he called Alene. She walked over, glancing up at the monitor as she did so. She did a double- take as she saw what was up, and became pale as a ghost.

"My General let a couple ships slip out of orbit. I am… displeased with him, so I've decided to make you General." Theilo said, then pointed at the button that would commence the destruction of an entire species and a couple thousand soldiers. He didn't need to say anything else. Alene's eyes widened, and she took a stumbling step backwards. She had never… never been the cause of a planet's destruction, always turned away when she saw it done, trying to justify to herself that if she stopped Theilo, she would get killed. Selfish, she knew. She had spent many nights laying awake and crying silently to herself about it. But this… Destroying a planet… This was the next step in getting her up a rank, yes, but… To kill a planet… Soon she would be like Theilo, taking pleasure in it. She met Theilo's eyes. They were soulless, cold, and evil. She swallowed. If she didn't do this, she would be thrown out of the airlock, let to suffocate in space. She could see it in those eyes, those beautiful yet empty eyes, that Theilo knew her worst fear, the death she feared most. It was because of an incident on the ocean planet of Korjan. They had been in a small water-vehicle because teleportation couldn't work over water, and it had lost power. Alene, Alene who hadn't even flinched at a wyleck, had nearly hyperventilated, sitting rigidly in her seat, staring straight ahead, white as a sheet of paper. The technician had fixed it, but Theilo had seen it in her eyes, the fear of death by slow lack of air, under a crushing blackness.

The old fear slowly filled her up, made her take a trembling step towards the button. Theilo nodded, encouraging her. She slowly walked towards it, like she was floating through water. She couldn't- yet she was reaching. She fought her motions, but the disobedient hand was slowly depressing the large black button. She turned away, closed her eyes at the last second, so that she wouldn't have to watch ten million people die by her hand. She didn't even look at anyone, not caring what Theilo thought- She ran from the room, running wildly, her feet taking her to her room.

Alene walked into her room like a person in a dream. Nothing seemed familiar, everything she had loved and cherished for so long seemed to have floated away. She crashed down onto her bed, sobbing quietly. Her mind seemed to be in some sort of stasis, drifting, drifting through the night. She realized that everything and everyone she cared for was temporary, would pass away in mere years of time. Nothing was permanent, nothing stayed. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed, realizing what she had done. She frantically searched her mind for something that she had done to help the galaxy. Anything at all! There had to be something, something she had done, some good she had done for somebody. She racked her brains, desperately trying to think of one thing she had done that people would even remember. Nothing. Nothing. Why, why why? Why had she been cursed to move from one life of destroying to another? A little voice in her head answered her- it was because she had chosen to be a destroyer. It was because she had chosen to kill all those people- that entire planet- how many planets had she killed without realizing it, without having any conception of what she was doing? As she had stood there, looking out that window on the poor, unsuspecting planet, she had realized. Realized what she had become, what things she had become. She had just become like Theilo. "NO!" she shouted, stumbling back from the window, turning back to her bed. "I'm- I'm not like him." She whispered, holding back tears. Her hands shaking, she fumbled for her laser pistol on her belt. She grabbed it, and thrust the end into her mouth, eyes closing. "C'mon, pull the trigger. You deserve it, you murderer." She whispered, her disobedient finger not moving it. She wasn't afraid, yet her body wouldn't move. She seemed to come out of her body, float above herself. She saw herself, tears streaming down her face, her blaster in her mouth, locket hanging from her belt-

Alene's eyes flew open, and she took the blaster out of her mouth, fumbling for the locket that had come loose in her fumbling. It was tarnished silver, with a series of pictures in an endless slideshow streaming through the screen. She flopped down onto the bed, reaching out with one finger to touch the innocent, young face that flitted past her. A face with her eyes, with his father's white -blond hair. A face of one good thing she had done- given life to a child. Her son. She smiled through her tears at the face, laughing as he played with a hologram as a baby, then older and running through the halls of the gang HQ, then six years old and riding on his father's shoulders. The day before Alex had let him come along on a scavenging hunt. The day before he had been killed in a gang war. The day before his drunk father came home and blamed Alene for it, and two days before his mother left, joined Theilo's army. Tears streamed down Alene's face and she pressed the locket to her forehead. She stayed like that for the entire night, silently crying, dampening her military uniform.

Chapter Four: The Portal

Theilo paced his room all night, too excited to sleep. Every so often he would glance at the strange tattoo on the back of his hand, wondering what it meant. Wondering how he could get Katana, his General, and himself into the portal that Katana had talked about. She had said that it only opened sometimes, wasn't that correct? So- you would have to be at the right place at the right time. Theilo raked his hand through his silvery hair, thinking hard. The portal opening would have the same type of energy as Katana had created when she had entered this plane, correct? Perhaps if they set the scanners on maximum, searched for the same type of energy that had came with Katana- but they didn't know what type that was! He frowned, left his room, and hurried down to the bridge.

It was silent, except for the computers beeping and an occasional yawn from one of the technicians. Theilo paused as he entered, hearing a conversation between two technicians. He had caught his name. So he slipped silently into the room and hid behind a pillar, to listen to them.

"If you ask me, I think that Theilo's got something crazy planned." A human said, pushing back his chair and glancing around at everyone.

"Devin- don't! You'll get in serious trouble if he hears you." A woman said, glancing over at the man. He shrugged, his eyes weary and careworn.

"I don't care! Listen, aren't you sick of it too? Don't do this- don't do that- keep your mouth shut and your shoulder at the grindstone. I hate the way he's always bossing us around- treating us like we're nothing." He said disgustedly. There were a few murmurs of assent and, encouraged, Devin went on.

"I tell you- you've all heard the rumors, the crazy things flying around. He's got some sort of weird creature locked up, that's for certain. Says it's from another plane. I tell you what he's gonna do- he's gonna take that creature and get more like 'em, and use 'em instead of us! Appears they're _immortal_." He snorted, and there were other chuckles.

"What do you want to do, Devin?" someone asked. He stood up, and punched his fist in the air. "I'll tell you what I want to do- I'm going to go show that self-righteous, stuck up prig that we're just as good as any immortal creatures. I'm going to show him that he'd better darn well not replace me, or he's gonna regret it!" Devin shouted. There was a pause, then a roar of assent from the technicians. They flew to their feet, a mad shine in their eyes.

Then Theilo stepped out, slowly drawing his blaster. They all stopped, as if punched in the stomach. Theilo's eyes were glistening, and he looked madder than they had seen him in a long, long time. Devin turned pale as Theilo slowly walked up to him.

"My Lord…" he gulped. Theilo slowly shook his head, putting away his blaster and turning away slowly. Devin breathed a sigh of relief and shot a look at the others, as if to say "See? He's not so tough after all!"

Theilo suddenly turned back, and punched the tech in the face. He flew fifty feet before smashing against the glass at about fifty miles an hour and slumped down, his neck broken. Theilo slowly walked towards the others, who quickly backed up. He took out a blaster, and shot them all, except one who he knocked unconscious. They were going to be an example of exactly how he dealt with mutineers. He stood surveying the faulty technicians, then slowly, picking his way over the bodies, went to the computers and started running several tests and probes late into the night.

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Alene was woken by a beautiful sensation, like a warm wind on her back, and the faint scent of roses. She smiled, and kept her eyes closed, enjoying the sensation. Katana, or a vision of her, appeared in front of Alene. _You must prepare yourself._ Katana said quietly, smiling at Alene. Alene frowned, her eyes still closed. "Prepare myself?" she asked. Katana nodded. _You must not give in, whatever you do, do not let him seduce you._

Then Alene was awake, staring at the brushed steel ceiling of her room. She hauled herself to a sitting position, defeat in every move of hers. Her eyes were haunted, mere shells where life had once flickered its fragile flame.

"Alene Nikas?" Alene jerked her head up. A teenager, about fifteen years old, was standing in front of her, with beautiful blue eyes, blond hair, and simple thermo -clothing. He wore a silver cross on a chain around his neck. She turned pale and glanced down at the locket in her hand, then glanced up at the young man. He smiled at her, his eyes seeming to be warm. He was what her son would have been, if he had lived.

"What are you?" Alene demanded suspiciously, remembering Katana's words. She wasn't going to be fooled this easily.

The boy looked hurt, frowning at her. "Mom, don't you recognize me?" he asked, looking at her concernedly. Alene bit her lip and looked down at the locket, emotion clouding all reason.

"But… You died…. I saw the body." She stammered brokenly. Her mind was in a whirl, she couldn't think.

"Mom, I didn't die. You're being silly. I'm alive! Alive as ever." He laughed easily. Alene ducked her head, tears in her eyes. She brushed them away.

"How did you get onto the ship?" she asked him, trying to figure it out. This couldn't be her son, could it? After all, she had never really seen the body. They had said the bomb had destroyed it. Could her husband have been mistaken?

"It is me, mom. I swear. The bomb- it caught me, clipped me. I flew about twenty feet, then hit my head. Dad saw all the damage, I guess, and thought I was dead. When I woke up, I was in the rival gang's base. I broke out after a while, and tried to find you, but you weren't there, and Dad was gone, too. I've been trying to get back to you ever since." He explained, kneeling and taking her hand.

Alene finally broke, grabbing her son and holding him, tears wetting his hair. She felt an incredible sense of relief as she looked down at him, smiling through her tears.

"Come away with me, mom." He urged her, taking her hand and begging her. "Come away with me to live, away from Theilo, away from everything." He seemed so sincere. Then Alene glanced down at his hand. No gang tattoo. She clammed up again, staring hard at him. He stared back at her, eyes pleading. But she knew now.

"He had a gang tattoo. Right there." Alene hissed, pointing at the back of her faux- son's hand. The fake boy pulled his hand away and smirked, then started changing. The young boy grew into full-grown man. His thermo- suit melted into a black silk suit with a red tie, his blue eyes became icier and colder. The messy blond hair turned into slick black.

"Pity you caught that." The man remarked, turning his hand over and examining it with interest.

"What are you?" Alene asked, pointing her gun at the man. He smiled at her, a gesture that made her hair stand on end. She leveled the gun and switched the safety off.

Nicholas smiled at the woman. Internally, he was rather irritated. He had nearly had her, if only he had been able to convince her… He did not trust her, she might interfere with Theilo's judgment in the future, might even grow to like the angel. There was one avenue left to him. He hated using it on humans, as they always were so weak, so submissive. They didn't put up enough of a fight.

Alene frowned as the man stared into her eyes. She felt herself slipping away, coming under his control, losing herself in the icy blueness. She felt herself becoming another one of the souls swirling in his eyes. Then, as she drifted through the blueness, she saw Katana's face. And she remembered. She remembered her son. She remembered all the good things in life. Her mind, her body was hers once again. With an effort, she threw forward, kicked him in the chest, then held the laser to his head.

"Get. Out." She snarled. He shook his head, hellfire burning in his eyes. As she saw that hellfire, saw the souls swirling in the depths of that ice, screaming in torment, an idea sparked in her brain. She had never believed in religion, but then again, she had never believed in angels or other planes, for that matter. Taking a deep breath, she racked her brains for the old prayers that her folks had taught her when she was a kid.

"Our Father, who art in heaven-" she began. She still remembered it, amazing. Nicholas grew pale, putting his hands over his ears and wincing. "Stop it!" he said, his voice a little bit anxious.

Alene couldn't believe it was working. Amazing. She continued. "Hallowed be Thy name-" Nicholas was shaking his head, begging her to stop now. The words rang in his ears like the tolling of a giant bell.

"They kingdom come-" With a final, inhuman shriek, Nicholas disappeared and Alene breathed a sigh of relief. She stumbled backwards from where she was standing, and collapsed onto the bed, her mind still ringing with that shriek. What was going on? Ever since they had gotten that angel, things had gotten weirder and weirder. Theilo had seemed to grow even more evil, if that was possible. Her mind had been filled with strange dreams all night, dreams of swirling vortexes, lakes of fire, marble mansions resting on clouds, and different planes. And now- visitors who seemed to be the devil himself, visitors who tried to seduce her by various means. She wondered if Theilo had been visited by the strange man- he would have probably sold his soul to the devil without a second thought. She snorted to herself. Small comfort. She had nearly become an imprisoned soul in whatever Hell he held in his eyes. But she hadn't, that was the difference. At least there was some difference between her and Theilo. After last night… G- she stopped herself from saying the word. If the devil was real, and it seemed like he was, then God probably was real too- Gosh. She had killed an entire planet. Killed all those people, that entire race. But what could she have done? She mentally kicked herself for that. She could have not pressed that button. She could have faced the consequences, she could have saved a billion lives. Alene ducked her head, near tears again, but she swallowed them. Her face hardened as thoughts flitted through her head. She slowly rose from her bunk and went to the window. Yes, she had killed them all. Yes, she felt like killing herself to end it all, to escape from what she was becoming. But-

She slowly looked down at her hands, which formed slowly into fists. She raised her head and stared out the window. She had to live with it. Live with what she had become. If she died, what could she do? Nothing. Yes, she was turning into something like Theilo. But she had to in order to survive this life. And this life was all she had- she didn't know how she could survive any other way. She was so used to this that she couldn't stop doing it, though she hated herself. She had to keep going. Her eyes hardened and her back straightened, setting her teeth.

"General Nikas. Come to the bridge." The earpiece in her ear buzzed. She jumped, interrupted in the middle of her revelation. She took a deep breath, then ran out of the room, down to the bridge. Running always helped her with her problems, always cleared her mind. By the time she reached the bridge, paused at the door, and entered looking like the spitting image of a General, she was a different person. She blinked several times at the bodies on the floor, then picked her way over them and joined Theilo and what looked like the entire crew of the ship in front of the monitors. She elbowed her way to the front of the crowd, and joined Theilo. He gave her a quick look. She stared calmly back at him with eyes of stone. Theilo's eyes widened slightly at her new demeanor, and then inclined his head slightly at her. He recognized himself in his General, and acknowledged that he had caused the change, all in one small gesture. Then he turned to the crowd. They fell silent immediately. He gestured at the one scared technician left, who was standing right in front of him.

"I walked onto the bridge, and I heard my technicians gossiping. Much to my dismay, they also appeared like they wanted to kill me. The bodies behind you- (The crowd darted uncomfortable glances behind themselves, then once again looked at Theilo)- are those technicians. This is the only one left. Do you want to see what I do to mutineers? Do you?" His voice slowly became softer and silkier. His most dangerous. Everyone recognized this, and glanced at each other uncomfortably.

He stepped forward, and shot the technician in the leg, his face twisting in contempt. The technician- a human with red hair, green eyes, and pale skin- collapsed to the floor, crying and holding his smoking leg. There was a hole in it the size of a ping-pong ball. Theilo took aim and fired at his other leg, a sneer on his face now. This continued until he had shot the man in the arms, legs, eyes, and nose, then he stepped back and watched the man squirm, bleed, and scream on the floor for a good ten minutes. The crew was silent, although most of them looked dangerously green. Theilo's eyes dared anyone to interfere or look away. Alene almost half- turned away several times, but stayed with her granite eyes fixed ahead, only a slight tinge of green coloring her cheeks. Her old self would have snapped and put the man out of his misery, but she didn't now. Finally, Theilo stepped forward and shot the man between the eyes. There was a deathly silence that almost seemed unreal after the man's death screams.

Theilo walked forward and kicked the man's head contemptuously. "This. Is what happens to mutineers." He said dangerously. "If I hear so much as a whisper- A whisper!- I will personally see to it that that person gets much, much more worse than this." He kicked the technician again, glaring at them all. A young kilas finally broke and started crying, screaming and throwing up at the same time. Theilo immediately grabbed his hair, slammed him down to the floor into his own bile until the man's nose broke and blood poured out of it. He stopped crying as Theilo aimed a blaster at his head and pulled it.

If the silence before had been thick, the silence now was the consistency of a brick wall. "Clean this up." Theilo hissed, his eyes shining madly, his hair hanging wildly about his head. Alene noticed that he looked unwell- his face was sweaty and grey, he was breathing heavily, and even standing close to him, she could feel the heat rolling off of him. Strange as it was, she felt a scrap of pity for him. He had been like her once, she could feel it throughout her as constant as the tolling of a bell. But that pity disappeared, as quickly as it had come, when he kicked the man he had just shot. She felt her face getting green as the soldiers carried off the bodies and as a robot cleaned up the blood and stomach bile still on the floor. As the crowd dispersed, about fifteen extra technicians came forward, looking nervous. "Man the computers." Theilo said shortly.

Inside his head, Theilo felt like a dark fog was pressing in on him, on all sides. What was this? He felt like he was suffocating, struggling for every breath he took. Inside his mind, he saw Nicholas, standing there and smirking at him. _What do you want? Why do I feel like this?!_ Theilo demanded. Nicholas laughed a sound that filled his head and made him clutch his ears in pain. Dimly, he heard Alene calling his name: "My Lord Theilo! Are you all right?" But he couldn't respond. He _couldn't_.

_ "You'll get sicker and sicker until you bring me the angel, Theilo." Nicholas hissed, his eyes full of hellfire. "I'll give you forty-eight hours for you to get her inside my door. Or else…." He laughed madly as his suit caught on fire and burned away. Beneath, Theilo realized with a thrill of horror that he was covered with black scales and __rotten meat. Nicholas threw back his head and laughed demonically, revealing that his teeth were sharp, and far more numerous than Theilo remembered. _

Then Nicholas was gone and Theilo was left standing on the bridge, feeling a little better, but still sick. Without a word to his confused General, he turned and started barking orders to the technicians, who complied as quickly as their computers could allow. Which was pretty fast.

"I want you to find me that energy that came with Katana. Significant sources of it. When you find one, get this ship there on the double!" Theilo ordered, stalking up and down the alley next to the computers. Alene stood well back, quietly watching. When Theilo was in this mood, you kept out of the way, with your mouth shut and head down.

It was a strange night.

The technicians sweated under Theilo's gaze, fear keeping them awake. Their hands flew over the screens, running tests on the entire sector. Every so often they would tesserect the ship to another sector, searching throughout the night.

Theilo walked up and down like the alley like a lion in a cage, pacing, pacing. In his mind, he counted off the minutes, hours, becoming more furious at Nicholas with every step he took. He still did not recognize Nicholas for what he was, perhaps too blind to see it, or perhaps even some device of Nicholas's keeping him from seeing it. His hours slowly counted down, grains in an hourglass slipping through the tiny glass neck. Taken for granted almost all the time, but when they were numbered, how quickly they flew!

Alene stood against the wall, not moving a muscle. She had a million conflicting emotions in her head, dissolving her resolution from earlier. Always present was that haunting guilt- she would reason with herself until she felt better, then it would come crashing in like a tidal wave, putting her back at square one. Finally, she just stood there, her head down and letting it saturate her entire being. She felt it start to change her, making her into someone she didn't know. Someone who would let planets be destroyed and not think twice about it. She fought it as she had never fought anything before. Sometimes she thought that she saw Nicholas's face floating in front of her, sneering and daring her to try and resist. Finally, with an effort, she broke loose of it, shaking it off and realizing with a start that she had been like that for several hours.

There was a hoarse yell from one of the monitors as a technician picked up something. Alene and Theilo were over at his monitor in a flash. "What is it?" Theilo asked, running his hand through his hair. He had forty-two hours now… Forty-two hours to live. It was a strange feeling, knowing that his hours were slipping through his fingers like water. He couldn't bring them back… He blinked, stunned at his new demeanor. What was this? Was he… changing? Change… The word brought a powerful rush of emotion, of memory. Darkness, pain and misery, not understanding. He pushed his memories back brusquely. He had never let emotion influence him, he wasn't going to start now. Even at death's door, he wasn't going to let it in. He had learned his lesson with emotion. It was there to hurt you, it didn't let you think straight.

"It's the same energy as before, my Lord. Sector 5. Want me to tesserect there?" he asked Theilo. There was a tense silence, and then Theilo shook his head. He turned to Alene. "Get thr- two survival packs from the supply room. Then meet me in the hangar." He said. Alene frowned, but didn't protest, even though it was grunt work. Theilo wanted to be alone, that was clear, so she headed off to the supply room. "It should take you about ten minutes." Theilo called after her. She nodded, then her strides lengthened to a run, her muscled legs pounding the steel.

Theilo walked at a more sedate pace to the hospital wing. They couldn't have teleportation on the ship, as it would mess up the tesserect software. It was a problem technicians still were wrestling with, as it greatly limited ship size. You had to be able to be able to walk through the ship in a reasonable amount of time. You couldn't waste an hour getting from one command post to another during a battle. It would give you a severe disadvantage.

"Katana. We've found a portal." Theilo said to the angel as he quietly entered the room. She looked much better than before. Her skin was a shinier silver, and her wings didn't look so battered. She was at the psych- monitor, her eyes closed and brain flipping through the Spacenet. Her eyes flew open as she heard him, a beautiful dark twilight color. "I have been learning your language." She said, gesturing at the small flat disk on the desk that was the modem."It is… beautiful. I also learned your history and science and many other things. Your philosophy is very interesting, as well. You have a… very strange outlook on life." Theilo nodded, internally impatient. They had to get going before the portal closed!

Katana, sensing this, rose from a hoverchair and walked over to Theilo. Her eyes seemed to pierce him and look right into his soul, down into his core. She frowned as she saw something, then her brow cleared and she smiled. "Well, let's go, Lord Theilo." She said. In her voice was a light note of gentle rebuke, as though she had seen what he had done. He nodded, for the first time in his life feeling a little flustered. For the first time in this life, that was… he shook his head and led Katana down the hall. She was silent for a minute, and there was only the clang of Theilo's boots on the steel. Her sandals, however, made no sound as she walked along gracefully. She stopped at the first window they came to, and looked out upon space for the first time. Her eyes widened as she saw the majesty of the stars for the first time, and she stood there for two minutes or more, simply staring. Then, without turning her head, she spoke. "What do you call it?" It was such a simple question that Theilo was confused for a moment. "Call what?" he asked, feeling strange. Her effect on him was the opposite of Nicholas's. She made him feel confused and hazy, whereas Nicholas had made him feel certain, and set.

"The… Those things. I only studied some of your ideas. I didn't get to… to these." Theilo saw what she meant, suddenly. "Oh, those are stars. Each has bodies called planets orbiting around them. Those are called solar systems. A whole collection of these systems, billions and billions of them, is called a galaxy. There are hundreds of galaxies, too. They form something called a universe. We have never traveled outside of this universe, due to technology limitations. Some say that it's infinite. The universe." He felt strange after the explanation. He had never explained something like that to anyone. She made him… Made him want to tell the truth. For a brief moment, he felt something flicker inside of him. Then it was gone, and he was himself once again. "But General Nikas is waiting for us in the hangar. We need to go." He started walking, and Katana followed him, glancing out each window they passed.

"I got the survival packs, my Lord." Alene said upon Theilo's arrival in the hangar. She was standing by the Eclipse, arms folded and bags at her feet. Her face was set, hiding any emotion. When she saw Katana, a brief expression flitted across her face, and she half-raised her hand in a shy greeting before putting it down. Katana returned it with a brilliant smile that seemed to be the embodiment of moonshine and starlight.

Theilo nodded in acknowledgement, then motioned Alene and Katana to follow him onto the Eclipse. Alene helped Katana into a passenger seat, and buckled her harness. Katana seemed uncomfortable at first with being trapped, but calmed down when Alene explained that it was only for her protection, in case something happened. Then she joined Theilo, buckling herself into the co-pilot's seat. She was reminded of her last time she had ridden in this spacecraft. Theilo had killed about a million people then, too. She wondered what they were going to do when they reached this portal. Go through it? Would their ship survive? Was it like a black hole? They still hadn't developed technology able to survive the warping of time and matter in a black hole. Would Theilo's ship be able to withstand the pressures of a yet- unrecorded phenomenon? She turned to Katana as Theilo programmed in coordinates. "Katana, why haven't we detected these portals yet? I mean, they should be obvious, right?" she asked the angel.

"You cannot detect them or see unless you have seen them or their effects before. It's a safety precaution so that humans do not… interfere with the Plan." Katana answered. Alene frowned as she turned back towards the front of the ship. Katana's answer had left her with more questions than ever. What did she mean, the Plan? Whose Plan? Why would humans interfere with it? As she turned back to Katana and opened her mouth, the craft leaped off of the flight deck, and what followed was two hours, twenty one minutes and forty- two seconds of death- defying stunts of Lord Theilo's. By the time they got to the portal, Alene felt like she was going to lose her lunch. And her breakfast. And her dinner and supper and tea-time snack and basically every single meal she had ever had for that matter. Even Katana was a tinge paler than normal. But Alene forgot all about her stomach dislodging its contents when she saw The Portal. And it indeed was The Portal, with a capital T and P. It was… huge. Enormously, impossibly huge. It could have fit one hundred Black Ghosts in it no problem. And it looked like something out of an M.C. Escher drawing. It was in the rough shape of a circle, and was blacker than the black of space, if that was possible. It seemed to slowly twirl, hypnotizing the passengers of the Eclipse for about five minutes, until, with an effort, Theilo looked away, pushed Alene's face away, and Alene pushed Katana as well. It seemed to throb with a strange energy that saturated the space around it with the slow, steady sound like the beating of a heart. At first you didn't notice the sound, but as you listened, it became louder and clearer, until all you could her was the steady, dull throbbing. Katana leaned forward and shouted, some words of her voice coming through. "You must go through!" She bellowed. "Or else it will entrance you forever! You _must_ go through NOW!" With an effort, Theilo piloted the ship towards the portal. As they went closer, it became more and more difficult for all of them to concentrate. Alene wondered dimly how Theilo managed to pilot the ship. She could hardly move, let alone concentrate on piloting… Her mind drifted, almost going into stasis as they moved forward, until she knew no more…

Theilo hung onto the controls with an almost kind of desperation. The size of the thing was deceptive- You thought that you were closer to it than you were. And it seemed to be repelling them, even the ship was moving sluggishly. The beating rhythm seemed to pound his ears mercilessly as he gritted his teeth and moved it towards the portal. A quick glance beside him showed that Alene had completely given over to the thing's spell- she was lying slouched in the seat, mouth slightly open, eyes staring ahead dully. Katana, too, seemed to have been entranced by the pounding rhythm, twilight eyes staring ahead, lifeless. The pounding seemed to seduce him, wrapping itself around him and just telling him to give up, give up, like Katana, like General Nikas… He shook his head. No. NO. Sweat poured from him as the world narrowed around him to finally just include the pounding, his hands clutched around the controls, and the thing ahead of him. It seemed to last for days, every second lasting hours. He lost all concept of time, merely just forging ahead against the thing, every breath an effort. He found his mind wandering, and with an effort, brought it back to the challenge.

Finally, he realized that he was almost through. As he pushed the controls forward, black lightning crackled around the craft and danced wildly. Then, suddenly, they were in a black, lightning filled tunnel, and the throbbing pounding had stopped. Instead, in its place was silence. Absolute silence as they moved at improbable speeds through a series of intersections, the ship seeming to guide itself. Theilo realized that his hands had been clutched so tightly against the controls that the palms of his hands were bloody. He pried them off, stifling a cry of pain as he slowly unbent his fingers. As the silence continued, he found himself listening for a sound, any sound at all. But no. Katana was staring straight ahead in a kind of meditative trance, and General Nikas was still unconscious, stupefied by the mysterious forces of the portal. Time wore on as Theilo tried to get a communication link in. Anything that would provide noise, a sound. The silence seemed to beat at him, just like the God-awful pounding of before. He tried to get a comm. link in, but it couldn't detect a signal, a message blinking, saying "No network detected". He slammed his hand onto the seat, frustrated. It was at that point that he realized that not only could he not hear anything, he couldn't make any noise. You would have thought that it would be a trivial matter, but he found himself almost crazy, hungering for a sound, any sound. He opened his mouth, tried to say something. Nothing came out, even when he tried to yell at the top of his lungs. Nothing. Absolute silence. Frustrated, Theilo tried to find out where they were, but everything he tried, there was that little message- "No network detected". He sat back in his seat in defeat. So it was true, then. They were on another plane. There was nothing to do now. He watched the tunnel flickering by, black streaked with black and purple lightning. It might have been a couple minutes, but it seemed forever as he sat there, wrapped in utter silence. He fell almost into a kind of a stupor like the others, but different. He did not look inward, but stared at the walls of the tunnel as they flitted by. For anything was better than what lay inside of him. Anything. Old memories flitted up, but he fought them down, banished them to where they belonged- in another life. He was a different person now than he had been… before. Before everything.

After millennia, or perhaps seconds, Theilo awoke, realizing that he had heard a faint sound. He listened almost hungrily, wishing for any noise at all. As he did, he heard something else. Like the soft intake and release of air. After several seconds, he realized with a start that he could hear his breathing again. He could _hear_! He listened to his heart, to his breathing, then opened his mouth and spoke the first word that came to his mind: "Nicholas." It was so wonderful, hearing a sound again, that he didn't realize after several minutes passed that something was wrong. The tunnel they were in had turned from an indifferent black to an angry red that reminded Theilo of blood. Streaks of black lighting rocked the small ship. The walls of the tunnel seemed to twist and mutilate themselves, writhing in agony. Theilo cursed inwardly as the ship hurtled at an ever-increasing speed through the intersections. Every turn they took, it looked worse and worse, the lightning hitting the ship more frequently, the walls becoming more and more disturbed. Finally, Theilo turned tensely to his General. "General Nikas." He said, adopting the manner, the other self that he wore around others.

Alene jerked awake, seeing Theilo calmly gazing at her, eyes hard and cold as ice. "Yes, my Lord?" she mumbled, not fully conscious. She quickly came fully awake as she caught sight of where they were. What _was _this? She sat up straight and walked shakily over to the front window. "What is it?" she asked, her mind already calculating how to get out of this. She pushed away all her problems, all her conflicting emotions. They had a problem. She had to fix it. Simple as that. No worries about herself, about who she was, or anything else. When she was focused on a problem, all that faded into the background.

"It seems…. To be a continuation of the portal. While you were unconscious, it was absolutely silent. Then I was able to speak and hear again, and it turned into this." He responded, hands flying over controls and trying to work things out. Alene frowned, bent over the console as well. "Do we have a network status?" she asked, brow wrinkled as she tried various tasks, only to be rebuffed. Theilo shook his head. "No." he said sharply, hands grasping his chair arm in frustration, then recoiling with pain. Alene caught his hand as he drew back, examining it and avoiding his eyes. "Be careful!" Theilo commanded as she found a nano-pack, pressed it on, then bound it with a bandage. Nano-healers targeting old, damaged, or diseased tissue, and replaced it with new, healthy tissue. The process, however, was quite painful sometimes, and Theilo's face hardened as he felt it take effect.

After she had bound Theilo's hand, Alene turned back to the console. After a moment's work, she managed to put out an enviro-scan. It would continuously scan the surrounding environment and create a 3-D model of exactly where they were. It was primitive software, but the only thing that would work without a network. After several seconds, while she waited impatiently, it flashed out a 3-D model of the ship and tunnel. Alene gasped when she saw what exactly she was seeing. The space-time fabric they were in was not just three-dimensional, it was… "Fourth dimensional." She breathed. They appeared to be in a series of a complicated series of wormholes, with various holes and openings into different space-time fabrics. They appeared to be heading at a downward slope, towards a large opening in the end of the tunnel. And at the end… Alene bent closer, frowning. Then she jerked back, gasping sharply. She grabbed the controls and wrestled with them, trying to get the ship to obey her. Theilo looked up from gritting his teeth over his hand, and saw her manhandling his ship. The effect on him was immediate. He stood up, and slapped her across the face. Hard. "What are you doing to my ship?" he snarled. Alene pointed mutely at the 3-D model, and Theilo's eyes widened. They were going directly towards the end of tunnel- which ended at a deep crater of nothingness. Beyond it was a plain of… something. But they were headed toward the crater, not the plain. They would drop right into it. The hypothetical void into which everything went eventually and never came out of. The nothingness of oblivion.

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Theilo grabbed the controls and wrestled with them, just as Alene had. But he had no chance- they were careening towards the crater. Alene, meanwhile, got up off the floor, ignoring her stinging face, and ran back to Katana. She shook her shoulders roughly. The angel's head lolled on her neck. "C'mon, Katana!" Alene said desperately, shooting a glance out of the front window and up at Theilo, desperately trying to swerve the ship off path. "Wake uuupppp!" She growled, finally slapping the angel in the face in pure desperation. Katana's eyes sprang open. In one glance, she took it all in. The tunnel, the 3-D model, Theilo forcing the controls till they nearly snapped, Alene bending over her face. Katana sprang to her feet, and looked out the window in front. Her eyes widened, as though she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "This… This is not… fortunate." She said faintly. "You can bet my ass it isn't!" Alene said sharply. Theilo glanced at her sharply, and she nodded. Soldier under stress, words flew all over the place.

"You need me to help you?"Katana asked. Alene nodded tersely. "Get off the ship." Katana said simply. Even Theilo turned when he heard those words. "What?" Alene asked blankly. "Get off. The ship. When we are about to go into the abyss, jump. I will fly you over to the plain. But we need to hurry. Get what you will need for a long journey." Katana said grimly.

Alene ran into the back, and grabbed the survival packs. When she got back up to the front, Theilo was standing in the middle of the ship, running his hands along it's curves, it's controls. It was the only time she had ever seen him display affection for anything or anyone, and it floored her, even in this tense a time. After a final look around, Theilo nodded. "Let's go." He said, not looking at anything except Katana and Alene. Katana opened the side door as Alene fasted both survival packs to her back. The hot, dry wind howled into the ship like a tornado, sending a dry, gritty red dust over everything, including Theilo and Alene. Katana, by some miracle, contrived to stay free of the abrasive dust. As they went through the mouth of the tunnel, Alene gasped at the horrors below them. The abyss was black, blacker than midnight, than anything else she had ever seen. On and on and on, spiraling downward forever. She tore her gaze away from it. It was like the portal, she felt. If you started looking at it, you could never stop. Beyond was a flat, reddish plain that stretched for as far as the eye could see. Katana held up three fingers. As they neared, she lowered one. They spiraled ever closer to the abyss as she put down another. Theilo and Alene tensed, ready to jump. As her third finger lowered, a wind caught the ship and pushed it forward rapidly. She jumped, grabbing Theilo and Alene. Her huge wings, meant to carry only one, strained as she flapped frantically. As they were swept forward by the breeze, they accelerated rapidly. As they neared the ground at nearly one hundred miles an hour, Katana tried to stop them, to no avail. They careened into the hard, unforgiving dirt and lay there, either unconscious- or dead.

Chapter Five: Curses

Nicholas was not happy. It had been twenty- four hours, and he still had not gotten that angel. That angel… He closed his fists as he hurried through the twisting tunnels of his headquarters. He was going to have a few words with the Vulture siblings. Katana was important. And not just one of those "important enough to send the Vulture siblings" matters. She was one of those "Important enough to risk his life by going to the mortal planes" matters. Actually, it had been by pure chance that he had found the angel. He had been heading to a planet (he forgot its name- they all sounded the same anyway) and found that the city in which his client was had been blown quite cleanly up. In fact, the whole goddamn thing had been merely fine space- dust floating through the blackness. A nice clean job, he couldn't have done it better himself. But still. He had needed that contact in that mortal plane. Then, flying back to the portal, feeling slightly annoyed, he had felt the angel's presence. He had thought that he was mistaken, but there it was. After that, the whole string of events had followed with Theilo and that damned human female, Nikas. And Katana… That damned angel! If he ever got his hands on their souls…

Nicholas stormed into the main room, black flames flickering around his frame, teeth bared. Silence fell immediately. In the corner, the carrion siblings tried to make themselves as small as possible. "Welcome back, my-" the Quetzal started to say. Nicholas shot a glare at him, and he shut his mouth quickly. When Nicholas was in this mood, no one wanted to mess with him. You would find yourself in the Pit before you could say Satan-Damn-it. "I want the vultures." Nicholas hissed, his nails digging into his palms. Afraid to risk their own necks, the various demons stepped back from where the crow-people were desperately trying to melt through the floor.

"W- Welcome back, my Lord." Yellowtooth said feebly. "H-How did the mission go?" Nicholas strode forward, grabbed all three of them, and pinned them up against the stone wall. "You didn't kill the angel." He hissed, his eyes flaming blue fire. Black flames dripped from his mouth.

"She fell onto the mortal planes- that's as good as dead!" Nightshade choked as Nicholas's grip tightened on all of their necks. Blackclaw nodded her head in agreement.

"No. It's not." He breathed. "It's not at all. She can come back." Black flames from around his body lashed out at the crow-people, causing them to howl in pain. "She can come back- then bring back the information she gathered to Him. We don't want that now, do we?" Blackclaw nodded, wheezing. "Yes my Lord. But-" She gasped. Nicholas's eyes narrowed into icy blue sits and claws grew from his hands, wrapping round their necks. "But what? You _imbeciles_! Do you have _any _idea…" He trailed off as Blackclaw choked out some words. "But- My Lord- Has to come back- through here!" she choked. The other siblings nodded fervently, wanting to be able to breathe. Nicholas's grip lessened on the sibling's necks as he frowned. The gears inside of his head whirred as he thought. If they indeed had to travel through here… He slowly let go of their necks, and they collapsed to the floor, gasping for air, their thin- bird -like necks expanding and shrinking rapidly. Nicholas squatted down in front of them, his eyes cold.

"I am going to let you live, filth. On one condition. Patrol the caves, and look for Katana. As soon as you find her, then bring her here, to me." He breathed. They nodded. Nightshade opened his mouth.

"What if we don't find her?" he asked foolishly. There was a moment of frozen silence, in which no one moved. He had asked the taboo question. The one you never, ever, ever asked. Ever. Because you knew what the answer was. Everyone knew what the answer was…

Nicholas threw back his head and laughed. That laugh was impossible to describe. It sounded like the howling of a demonic wolf, a crazed hyena, a lunatic, all thrown together and overlapping in a chaotic mess. It echoed demonically through the holes in the strange castle, and out over the flaming pits and the whole region of Hades.

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Alene was the first to wake up. She wasn't sure what woke her, only that there was pain. Immense pain. Pain that she had never experienced ever in her entire life. She bit her lip to prevent herself from screaming, not even noticing that she actually was biting it so hard that she was actually bleeding. The pain… It was immeasurable, swallowing her up and burning her body. She wanted it to end, to go away. Even if it meant death, because at least death was cool and dark and you couldn't feel anything. Not pain, not anything. As the pain roared through her body, she opened her eyes. At first she saw only blackness, and panicked that she was blind. Then, she realized that she was lying on her stomach. On top of Katana. She raised her head a half-inch, screaming at the pain. They were in an enormous cavern, with a ceiling that soared above her into darkness. The floor beneath her was an unyielding red rock. Deep inside her numb brain, she remembered that they had fell, and that her impact with the rock was what was causing the blinding pain screaming through her body. As she lay there, wishing to die, she remembered something- The survival pack. It had pain pills in it. It was on her back, though… had it survived the fall? She didn't care about anything else at the moment- just stopping the God-awful pain that was killing her… She reached up, ignoring the pain, and frantically pressed the button on the front. It rolled off her back, and she grabbed for it. Her arm and ribs screamed in protest, but she ripped open the back and grabbed a pain pill, and a water capsule. She swallowed both, the coating on the water capsule dissolving, filling her stomach with much-needed water. She lay there quietly, feeling the pain in her body evaporate. The chemical in the capsule cut 85 of the pain signals sent to the brain, causing troops to be able to go on, even if they were injured. Not nearly as good as an actual healing, but far better than the pain.

The searing pain that had roared throughout her body evaporated, leaving only a dull throbbing that was easy to push to the back of her brain. Alene slowly sat up, ignoring the small, sharp bursts of pain throughout her chest. She looked down, and realized that she was lying on Katana. Katana had saved her life. If it hadn't been for the cushioning of the angel, her head would have been dashed against the unforgiving rock. The angel was soft, softer than anything else Alene had ever felt, but strong. She didn't have a single scratch on her. Amazing.

When she felt a little better, Alene schootched off of her savior, wincing in pain. Time to inspect herself. She ripped open her shirt and undershirt, then gasped at what she was seeing. Katana had cushioned her fall, all right, but she looked… Her entire chest and abdomen was black, purple, blue, yellow, and green. She gingerly prodded the area, then yelped. Gritting her teeth, she felt the area. It seemed like nearly every rip was fractured at least. She pulled her shirt back together and straightened her jacket. Then she tried to stand up. Unfortunately, her left leg collapsed as she tried, slamming her face into the rock. Hard. She groaned as she felt her nose break, accompanied by another rush of fiery pain. Great. Now she would have bruises on her face to match the ones on her chest. Perfect. This was the third time she had broken her nose. She held a shirt cuff up to her tender nose as she pulled back her left pant leg. The leg was just as colorful as her chest from the knee down. And poking out of the right side- She swore just as colorfully as her leg and chest. A bone. Great. How wonderful… "ZECK DAMN IT!!!" Alene said, snapping as she caught sight of her left hand. It, too, was broken and colorful. She sighed and reached for the emergency pack- and caught sight of Lord Theilo. He had landed on the rock. Forgetting all about herself, Alene dragged herself over to him and flipped him over. Amazingly, he didn't have a scratch or a bruise on him. He was pale and sickly-looking, yes, but he didn't have a single broken bone in his body. His pulse was strong and healthy, and his breathing was like that of a sleeping child. Alene stared at him, wondering exactly how this could be. He had fallen just as far as she had. So how could he be like he was, without a single scratch on him? It was impossible! Yet… Alene paused when she saw a strange tattoo on his left hand. It was glowing brightly. A fiery cross. That had never been on his hand before… She bent closer, fascinated. It was casted a faint energy shield of some kind around Theilo's body, protecting him. Strange… As she stared at it, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise. It was strange, but it reminded her of Nicholas. Was it possible that Theilo had made a deal with the devil? He would, she knew that. He was certainly unscrupulous enough, and things he had been doing lately… Like that technician, the crew member. He had been uncommonly cruel, even for him. But what would the devil want? What would he gain from Theilo? Alene frowned, shrugged, and turned back to the emergency supplies. It was Theilo's business what he did with his soul. She had never been a big "salvation" person. And besides, once you got into a deal with the devil, there was no getting out of it, at least from what she had heard. You didn't mess with stuff like that. Look at that old Earth novel… What had been its name? The Picture of Dorian Grey, that was it. Look what had happened to that guy! No, she didn't want to mess with the devil's dealings. Let Theilo deal with it himself…

For a brief moment, Alene felt guilty. Perhaps she should help him? After all, he was another creature, a living being. Didn't everyone deserve a chance at salvation? _He chose his path! He had a choice!_ A voice inside of her argued. _He chose to become what he has become. _But was that true, really? Had he wanted to become a soulless Lord of War ever since he had been child? Or had he been like her, born into a family of thieves and murderers? She brushed the thoughts aside and found some casts inside of the medic- pak that she had thrown into the survival pack. The casts weren't really casts in the ancient sense of the word. They were more like a living metal that wrapped around the broken limb and hardened in the places that you needed support in, but still was flexible in joints. Alene tore open a packet of the flexi- metal with her teeth and slapped it onto her leg. After a moment, the squishy block softened and ran over her leg like water. After it had wrapped around it, it hardened. Alene sighed with relief as she felt her muscles relax from fatigue. She hadn't realized it, but her muscles had been holding up the broken bone by themselves. Now they could relax. She closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation, then reopened them. She still had work to do. After affixing the flexi- metal to her chest and hand, she stood up tentatively. Everything seemed to work fine now. There was a mild anesthetic in the flexi- metal, so between that and the pain pill, she barely felt a twinge. Stretching, she went over to Katana and made sure that the angel was okay. She was fine, with only a couple small cuts to her wings. Alene shook her head in amazement. Between Theilo's miraculous escape from injury and Katana's immortality, she felt positively fragile.

Alene, after considering for a moment, decided against exploring the cave. She was compromised from her injuries, even with the casts, and she didn't like leaving Katana and Theilo unprotected here. So, she got a weapon from her bag and set about making sure that it was workable. After that, she set it close at hand and gazed around the cavern. It was huge, that was for sure. And for some reason that she couldn't quite place, it spooked her. Maybe it was the way that the shadows seemed to lurk hideously in the corners, like no shadow on the human planes did. Only in nightmares. Or maybe it was the strange, haunting cries off in the distance, and once (although she couldn't be sure) a sound like a hyena's laugh, only a thousand times worse.

Then, much to her horror, it began to grow dark. It had been dark before, but now it was getting pitch black. Swearing quietly, she went through her bag until she found a fire- kit. She pulled a cord, stood back- and presto, instant campfire. She moved Katana and Theilo until they were all around the campfire, then laid down on the ground with her weapon close at hand.

Theilo awoke abruptly, sitting up and glancing around sharply. They were in some sort of cavern, with a campfire, of all things, in front of them. Alene was asleep, but as soon as she heard him sit up, she awoke and grabbed for her gun. When she saw him, however, she put it back down and walked over to him, wincing as she set her foot down. The pain pill had worn off now. "How did we get here?" Theilo asked tiredly. He felt… strange. Like before… before everything. Before he had- he shook his head. No, he wouldn't recall that. Not now, not ever.

"We fell. Out of the ship. It was a long fall- Katana was all right because she was an angel. I was fine because I landed on her. You- you had something, some sort of energy field around you. I woke up, fixed myself up, and made the campfire. Want any provisions, my Lord?" she replied, holding out the supplies bag. Theilo reached in absentmindedly, pulling out some sort of concentrated meat. He bit into it and chewed thoughtfully.

"Any idea where we are, General Nikas?" he asked, his manner becoming more like himself once more. Alene shook her head. "No, my Lord. My guess would be some sort of plane. I'm not sure which." In fact, Alene was pretty sure which, but she didn't want to say it in front of Theilo. And it wasn't Heaven, that was for sure.

Theilo nodded, finishing the food and throwing the wrapper back into the proffered bag. "Well, we'd better find out. How… How long has it been?"he asked her. "Since what, my Lord?" Alene asked, puzzled. Theilo was not acting like himself at all. What was going on?

"Since we crashed." He said urgently. He felt woozy… In fact, he didn't feel good at all. How long did he have left to live? Thirty-six hours? Thirty? He did some quick calculations in his head. He figured that he had spent about six hours in the tunnel…

"About eleven, my Lord." Alene responded. Theilo froze, sweat pouring from his skin. That made it… twenty four! A whole day gone! He turned to the angel, standing up shakily and making his way over to her. He had to get her to Nicholas… "Wake up!" he told her sharply. He slapped her on the face, and her eyes sprang open. She sat up, and glanced around, them paled.

"Where are we, Theilo?" she asked. Theilo shrugged, inwardly relieved that she had gotten up, and wasn't out cold or anything. "It feels like…" she frowned, looking around. "Hell." She said simply. "It feels like Hell." She pushed herself to a standing position, and walked over to Alene, who was trying to make a scan of the area and getting frustrated. It kept saying something about too big a scale to make a map, which was utter nonsense. The range of the mapper was big enough for an entire planet! But, then again, if they were in Hell, perhaps conventional physics didn't apply. "You won't get that to work." Katana said conversationally. Alene grunted and put it back into her bag, annoyed privately. She hadn't had nearly enough sleep anyway, and that always made her grumpy.

"Is this… really Hell?" Alene asked Katana. Katana nodded. "Yes, it is. In order for me to get back, we need to get this plane's Planesman. He oversees all traffic from one plane to another. They're a neutral entity, usually. That way, they can't deny travel to any free soul." Alene nodded, then hesitated.

"Listen, I get the feeling that you know a whole lot more than you're telling. Why can't you tell me everything, about what you are, how you got here, and why you need to get back?" she asked. Katana sighed, shaking her head. When she answered, she did not quite meet Alene's eyes fully. "I cannot tell you. Not yet, since I cannot trust you. I do not know you well enough. And certainly not here. These walls have ears…" she glanced around at the cavern and finished in a low voice. "And eyes. We should get moving."

Alene suppressed a sigh. She hadn't really been expecting an answer, but she had been hoping for one. But what Katana had said was probably right. She didn't trust these caverns, either. Still, was it too much to ask someone to be straightforward with her for just once? Shrugging off that thought, she walked over to Lord Theilo, who was staring off into the darkness. The blackness and shadows of the cave were reflected in his eyes, causing them to be even darker than normal. "My Lord. Katana says we should move. These caves are not safe to stay in for long." Alene said hollowly. Her mind felt numbed by dull, throbbing pain and fatigue.

Theilo turned, his face so uncharacteristically emotional that it threw Katana off guard entirely. There was a sadness there, etched into those eyes, that she had never seen before. There was a kind of melancholy bittersweet regret around his face for a moment. As their eyes met, she recognized herself in those dark orbs, hurt, lost and confused. Then he lowered his eyes and walked off to join Katana.

Alene stood there, stunned at what she had just seen in her Lord's eyes. He… He had emotions! Perhaps even a soul… She turned, walking back to the two of them as they hoisted the bags onto their backs. "Here." Theilo handed Alene her bag, his face emotionless as always. She took it silently, hoisted it onto her back and followed them as they started the trek through the enormous cavern.

Theilo felt his mind filled with all sorts of strange emotions- sadness, even regret, fear, lonliness. Memories from the past flickered through his mind, each causing a sharp jolt of pain as they hit them. He tried to ignore them, but they persisted, driving at him like an army of needles. He shook his head in annoyance, his face set. He would not let them in- No, that was not who he was anymore. He would never be that way again. The memories were not whole, besides, they merely just made him try to remember more. Whenever he did that, it hurt him more than anything he had ever experienced. It was like having swords jammed into the soft tissue of his brain. Finally, he gave in, let them pour over him like water over his head. He hadn't thought about it in years- let them come. Strange how death would make you do that-

_He had woken up on the street, with no recollection of anything. Just woken up like that, no memory, no name. He could still remember the horror, of not knowing who he was__, of not even knowing what he looked like, or how old he was. A complete helplessness that had drove him to almost kill himself with desperation. He had wanted to remember so badly, to know who or what he was__. Then a gang had come, a gang who had had a score to settle with him, apparently. They had attacked him, beat him up, and then brought him to their base. The rest of the __month __had been him getting beat up, spat upon, and other things. They had jokingly called him "Lord Theilo",__ which is all he ever learned of his real name, __ but__ they__ had been careful to not discuss personal information about him around him. So he had escape__d one day, gotten out and sworn __to destroy them if he ever got the chance.__ The hatred for that gang had burned long and hard in his veins- obviously he was a fierce opponent.__ Then he had started learning about himself__, about his strange skills and talents__. He could read in kilas, human, wyleck, and several other scripts and speak kilas and human fluently. He had a fair grasp of mathematic__s, physics, and most branches of science, too. But his real skill was in politics. He could argue a point from most every direction, get through every legal loophole there was if he wanted to do something that wasn't really on the legitimate side of the law, and was completely merciless in his attacks. He had made a lot of money at the cantinas that way, __advertising as the debate champ. You could debate something with him, anything, and he would always win. He had been happy, nearly forgotten about the gang__, been able to get a small apartment and have some sort of a semblance of a life__. Then the trouble had started. He had fallen in love. With a kilas female, daughter of a __powerful __politician. Her father h__ad found out Theilo's name, he __not only tried to have Theilo killed, but also had his daughter killed too. Right in front of Theilo's eyes. So he could see that this businessman was not to be messed with. Then he had walked over and stuck __his face in Theilo's. "You see that, boy?" he growled, pointing at his daughter. "That- Is your mother's sin. That- is what I think of you, of your whole rotten family." Then he had spat in Theilo's face. Theilo had snapped right then and there, became who he was now. He had slaughtered the man, slaughtered the guards, slaughtered every goddamn person in the building. Then he had blown up the planet, just for kicks. That had started his conquest of the galaxy. Still… He had always felt like there was something missing. His past. He had searched every public record on every planet, ever server, in the entire galaxy, for the name Theilo. Nothing. No other man (or woman for that matter) with the name of Theilo had ever existed. __He had searched for his memory in every way possible, through meditation, hypnosis, and every computer test in the galaxy. At least, until his past had started to hurt. Every second of remembrance was pain, immense pain, because of how different he was now. Especially __Myra, his kilas love. When he remembered her, red hot pokers jammed themselves through his head. So he had stopped thinking about it, focused on what he was doing now. But once in a while, something would remind him of it. A woman kilas who had the same eyes as Myra. A gang on the street. A businessman calmly discussing politics and the market. And he would try to forget. Because the past was too painful, and he was too different. Lord Theilo had turned away from his past, to conquer the galaxy. _

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The carrion-creatures swooped low through the different Hells, each for different types of sinners. The Hell of hunger, for example, for those who had been gluttonous in their last life. Those in this hell were skin and bones, trying to eat all that they could see, including each other. What little food they actually were able to get down caused them such immense pain that they would immediately regurgitate it and go in search of better food.

Next to that, the Hell for the Greedy burned even hotter. There were mountains of wealth, in every form imaginable, but as the souls picked it up, it disappeared between their fingers. Some of them got buried in red-hot treasure, crushed by the very thing they desired.

The Hell of No Rest was joined to those two. The souls who had been slothful in a previous life toiled night and day without stopping, doing work without pause, even as their bodies were so exhausted that they had to drag themselves inch by inch over blisteringly hot ground.

There was a Hell for each of the seven Cardinal sins, plus many other various levels for those who didn't quite fit into any of the categories. Every soul rotated between Hells, for each of them had usually were guilty of several. The crow-brethren flew over every one of them, cawing raucously and taking enjoyment in the tortures of the damned souls below them. The souls winced as the sound hit their ears, but couldn't stop what they were doing, even though the sound drove their eardrums into their heads.

"Where would they enter the caverns, brethren?" Yellowtooth asked, gliding over the Hells. Blackclaw and Nightshade shrugged, looking at each other. They were unsure, and afraid, too. If they failed to bring Nicholas Katana, things would very rapidly become disastrous for them.

"There are many places that the Portal opens into." Nightshade replied, soaring high on a scorching hot updraft. "The Cave of Mirrors, The Plains of Despair…" He trailed off, thinking.

"We'll have to check all of them." Yellowtooth said tiredly, banking left to enter the Plains of Despair. The brethren followed him as they drew ever closer to the trio of travelers.

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Alene walked along in silence. They had been walking for two hours now, and seemed to be getting nowhere. If she hadn't had the compass in her hand and was sure that they had been walking straight, she would have thought that they had just walked one giant circle. After a couple minutes, however, she spotted an opening in the rock. Running forward, she peered cautiously inside the new cave. It was exactly the same, except that the cave was covered with mirrors. Cracked, old, new, small, large, they were all there, covering the entire cavern. Alene frowned and pulled back out, looking behind her as Theilo and Katana ran up.

"Katana- what is it?" she asked, gesturing inside the strange cave. Katana looked in, and shrugged. It didn't seem dangerous to her, so she led them inside.

After about five seconds, the cave exploded with noise and images, each member of the party seeing and hearing different things.

Alene saw her son, being killed by the gang, her bound helpless, not being able to stop it- His screams pierced the air around her, accusing her in shrill tones. _You killed him! You killed him! You killed him! You killed- _"Stop!" Alene shouted, holding her hands to her ears. Abruptly, it switched, showing the people that she had killed, only they were staring at her with ghostly, accusing eyes, hands stretching out towards her and murmuring sharp accusations. She closed her eyes, tried to make them go away, but she saw them just as clearly with her eyes shut as she did with her eyes open.

Theilo saw Myra, being killed, her hand reaching out towards him, asking… Her screams assaulted his ears. They pounded inside of his head, busted his eardrums. Then, millions and millions of dead ghosts of all shapes and sizes, moving towards him, hands outstretched, eyes burning in hostility. He stepped backwards, afraid for the first time in his life. Each of them, in their hands, held the weapons that he had killed them with- bombs, lasers, grenades, even old fashioned bullets- They all moved in on him, crowds upon crowds raising weapons and yelling their accusations. In the front, a ghostly Fllasa waved the bank statements threateningly, the technicians he had killed aimed laser pistols. Leading the pack was the one technician that he had tortured the most, grinning maniacally and holding a laser pistol. Theilo turned and ran, ran through the cavern, pursued by the ones he had killed. What was this madness? He ran for hours, maybe days- he couldn't tell!- and finally collapsed, breathing raggedly. As they approached, he shut his eyes, trying to block it out. It had to stop! It couldn't go on! What _was_ this place? This hell of a place? Then, as the phantoms of his past closed in upon him, he realized. This was Hell. This was every man's worst nightmare. And Nicholas- was Satan, the Devil. Theilo realized with a sinking heart that not only had he made a deal with Nicholas, he had sold his soul to the Devil. Before, that wouldn't have mattered. Now… He wasn't sure what mattered to him anymore. But one thing was clear as he felt the sting of a thousand arrows hit his body- he wasn't going to make it to find out.

Chapter Six- Rebirth

Alene ducked her head as she felt ghostly fists hit her, beat her flesh, tear at her hair. The cave repressed all happy memories, all the good things that she had done, everything. As she laid there, being killed by the murderous ghosts, she felt something fly out of her pocket and come to rest in her opened hand. She looked down dully, not expecting what she was about to see. Her son. Alex. Staring up at her with wide, innocent, blue eyes. As tears formed in her eyes, as love clutched at her heart, they ghosts melted away. And she was left lying there, clutching the locket and sporting many new bruises. Beside her, Katana was standing and looking down. "I merely reminded you." She said simply, explaining. "But remember- trials are coming in which I will not be able to intervene. You will have to remind yourself." Alene nodded, standing up slowly and painfully. "Katana- What is this place?" She asked the angel. Katana looked down, thinking it over. "This is Hell." She said finally. "This is the place where the souls of the damned suffer their torments."

Alene caught sight of Theilo lying bruised and battered on the ground. As she watched, bruises magically appeared on his body. She ran over, batting at the air as she went to try to chase away whatever ghosts were haunting him. Not Theilo. Not now. She wasn't sure what she felt for the Lord of War, only that he used to be like her. That one look he had given her- that was enough to make her want to protect him till the end. Besides, she was his General. She had sworn an oath to protect him- and she was going to keep it no matter what.

"My Lord!" she said urgently. "Fight them! Please!" Alene did not know what she would do without Theilo. It was not an emotional thing, really, she rationalized. Rather, he was the leader. He knew where he was going, what they were going to do. Without him, she was lost. But even as she spoke, Theilo gave a great shudder- and lay still upon the ground. Alene held back any sort of emotion, stifling a sob. It was a moment before she could compose herself, holding back any sort of emotion at all.

"Katana!" she called out calmly. The angel floated over, her feet barely touching the ground. As she neared Theilo, her face grew solemn. Already, he was turning paler than normal, his eyes glassy. Hastily, Katana touched his forehead, closing her eyes. As she did so, a circle of light grew from her finger until it was the size of a golf ball, resting on Theilo's forehead. Katana watched it intently. All of a sudden, it turned into a black orb, then melted into Nicholas's head. Katana's eyes grew wide, and she pulled back. But still the orb-head hung there, glaring up at them.

"Theilo's soul… is mine, angel!" It spat, then broke apart into shards of black glass. Alene ducked as they flew overhead, to land on the mirrored floor with a resounding clatter.

"What… what does that mean?" she asked Katana, choking back any emotion. Katana looked grave, looking down at the dead man on the floor. Her brow was wrinkled, and her eyes hard. Alene swallowed nervously. "Is he… dead?" she asked the angel. Katana nodded, and Alene's face hardened.

"He is not totally dead." Katana said slowly, glancing at Alene. "But for you to understand that, I will have to tell you some of how… How our world works." She sat down, crossing her legs. Trying not to look at Theilo's corpse, Alene did the same.

Katana took a deep breath, then began to speak. "Lord Theilo is not dead. At least, not totally. A spirit is dead when they died on a mortal plane _and_ their spirit is in repentance in Purgatory, in agony in Hell, or in bliss in Heaven. Since Theilo died in Hell itself, and he appears to have some sort of debt with… with the face-(She tried to say the name, but her neck spasmed, like it was suddenly constricted.)- his spirit is not bound to the spirit regions. A ghost, you might say. A ghost that could be reunited with a body if freed from bondage."

Alene frowned as Katana finished. "So… How would you free him from bondage?" she asked the angel. "I- We need him, to complete our mission, right?" She composed herself. Now was not the time for emotions, at all. Later, she could sob quietly in some dark place, her body racked with grief, but not now. Not here. Internally, she wondered what it had been about him that had called to her. He had been evil, no doubt about it. So why… why had she been attached to him? It had been strictly because she was directly under him, she reminded herself. Nothing more. _Then why did he always bring __me__ on missions? Asked __me__ to come with him?_ She asked herself silently. She couldn't answer. She never had been able to.

"No. We do not need him for our mission." Katana responded, standing up and not glancing at his body. Alene felt like the whole world had disintegrated and she was left standing, like a ghost, over the field of destruction. Leave Theilo. Leave her commander, her Lord? Leave… Herself. And that- that was the answer to her question, she realized. Theilo was a reminder of her past, a threat of her future to her. Without him, she would never be reminded of what she was, and what she could be. He kept her human. And she was still the General. If at all possible, she would keep him alive. With that resolution, she shook her head. Katana stared at the human in astonishment. "What?" she asked Alene blankly. What was this human thinking? Ah… She didn't know what information Katana carried. Neither could she know, either. It was too dangerous to trust to a flighty, emotional mortal. Yes, the mortals were… what were they? Intelligent, sensible creatures, yes. And fascinating. But the thing that really struck a chord with her was the fact that the love that they felt could be so pure, so deep, to rival even His love. And she liked Alene. She was a rare exception to the rule- sensible, not overly emotional, determined to do whatever necessary to see that the right thing was done. And Katana liked that, liked the sensible ones. Also, there was a purity about Alene, a sort of "diamond in the rough" look about her, even though Alene couldn't see it herself. Theilo, though, had been a different matter. Hard, cold, even evil. She couldn't see what Alene saw in that human. Humans were strange creatures, though…

"No. Listen, Katana, I don't know who you think you are. I don't care if you are some angel from another plane, or whatnot. Theilo is my commander, my Lord. And I took an oath to protect him. I need to fulfill that oath." Alene said steadily, looking directly into Katana's eyes. She meant every word of it, and it rang true throughout the mirrored cave. After she finished speaking, there was a strange sort of silence, then the walls began to fall apart. Huge cracks began to form in the mirrored walls, zigzagging like mad through the entire cave. As Alene and Katana watched in astonishment, the entire cavern; walls, floor, and ceiling; simply vanished into black oily smoke. There was a silence as Katana stared at Alene. The human was looking around incredulously at the now-bare rock of the cave. Katana gritted her teeth and ran a hand through her beautiful hair. Her silver brow wrinkled. The walls of the Cave of Mirrors could only be broken by one thing- and that was pure devotion and belief in oneself, or one another. It was simply quite astonishing that a human could have broken the walls.

"Alene, no one can help Theilo now. No one except maybe Him. Or even perhaps Theilo himself. But you have to leave him, at least for now. You see, there is something I haven't told you-" Katana was cut off by the carrion-siblings, who swooped into the cave, claws out, beaks open, and ready to kill.

The creatures were so intent upon their prey that they failed to realize several very important things as they entered. First of all, their prey wasn't bent over double, trying to beat off their own personal demons in vain. In fact, they were drawing several very painful looking weapons. Second, there was no such thing as the Cave of Mirrors anymore. It simply did not exist.

"Crow-brethren." Katana breathed as she drew her sword. As she did so, she changed subtly. Her hands grew longer to accommodate the thick handle of her sword, and her skin seemed to become harder and more armor-like.

Alene's mouth hardened, and she drew a laser pistol from her belt. She had no idea what the creatures were, but they were going to go down with one good shot from her ZR-267. She smiled grimly, and brought the gun up. Leveling it at the creatures, she fired off several good shots in their direction. One of the lasers hit the leader in the wing, but the flesh simply grew back, and he paid it no notice. Alene's eyes widened, and she cursed under her breath. "Zarkers." She muttered.

Katana caught sight of Alene's fruitless attempts, and whispered to her from the corner of her mouth as she watched the creatures circle: "They can only be hurt by a blessed blade thrice-dipped in holy water. Anything else will just bounce off of them or go right through them."

"Oh, great." Alene snapped, putting her gun back in its holster. It was the first time the weapon had failed her, and she felt annoyed. "I suppose you don't happen to have any blessed blades that have been thrice dipped in holy water just laying around, do you?" The birds swooped closer as Katana tossed Alene a dagger. She caught it by the handle, shrugged, and got into a guard position. Lucky for her she had taken sparring lessons, as an art and relaxation form. She had never thought that she would actually use the skill.

Yellowtooth and Nightshade swooped in while Blackclaw circled ahead as a lookout, tearing and raking with iron claws. Katana blocked their strokes with ease, not exhausted by weeks of flying this time. "Nicholas wants you!" Nightshade hissed. Katana answered by swinging and managing to hack a foot off of the bird-creature. It howled in pain and recoiled.

Nearby, Alene sparred against Yellowtooth, pressed hard against the ruthless opponent. "What are you doing here, mortal girl?" he cackled. Alene didn't answer, instead thrusting the dagger forward with all her might and missing. The maneuver left her off-balance, and she stumbled. Immediately, Yellowtooth was on her, raking with his claws. Alene swung at him in desperation this time, and connected with his wing joint connecting the feathered mass to his body. Yellowtooth squawked and flew backwards as Alene swung repeatedly at him, sometimes nicking his flesh and inflicting wounds on the half-rotten meat.

At that moment, Blackclaw flew in, seeing that her siblings were evenly matched. Searching out the weakest opponent, she flew to help Yellowtooth with Alene. Alene's face hardened as she saw the other filth-bag flying in. This was wonderful. Really terrific. She was hard- pressed to just defend herself, never mind go on offense as the deadly duo forced her back inch by inch.

Off to the right, Katana was having a tough time with Nightshade as well. Nightshade was known far and wide as the best fighter this side of Hades, and was showing it in his brilliant strategies and relentless attacks. They fought on, each group edging nearer and nearer to disaster and oblivion.

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Theilo was flying over Hell, seeing the tortures that were inflicted upon the damned as he closed his eyes and breathed a prayer for some kind of help. He didn't… didn't want this to happen to him, too. Not him. Not The Lord of War. He had never thought about death, especially when Nicholas (the name made his pulse pound, his hands clench, his eyes narrow) had _promised_ him eternal life. Nicholas was going to pay for this, one way or another. But death... It had always seemed faraway, not happening to him… He calmed himself down, trying to reason with himself. Alene would come, wouldn't she? His General had gone everywhere, done everything without complaint, always been faithful. She would come, wouldn't she? _Wouldn't she?_ With a jolt, Theilo remembered when he had had her blow up that planet… she had hated him then. And there had been other times, when he had caught her looking at him with profound disgust out of the corner of her eye. So maybe… Maybe she would brush him aside, as he had simply forgotten or killed so many people. He didn't know why that hurt him so deeply, but it did. Like the fists of the ghosts of his past… God, the crowd in the cave of mirrors…. The fear had penetrated deep within his soul, woken him up to something of what he was now. He had come so far from Myra's lover who had snapped one day… he was a murderer now. A cold-blooded murderer. How had it come to this? He had suddenly woken up from a deep, frozen sleep, in a strange and murderous land that he had created himself. He had been sleeping for years, not knowing what he was, or what he was doing, merely just _doing_, and not seeing anything.

As he speculated on himself, he drew closer to a monstrous head, features spinning haphazardly. A deep, primal fear the likes of which he had never felt reared its ugly head deep within him. He thrashed against the irresistible current that was pulling him, but to no avail. As he was drawn in, he shut his eyes and did not open them until he heard a voice above his head.

"Well, well. Look who it is." It was Nicholas's wheedling, seductive, silky voice. Theilo immediately opened his eyes, and glared up at the Devil. He was bound to a black marble floor, unable to move an inch. Above him was a huge, vaulted, black room made out of some sort of material. It was lit only by a dim, sickly yellow light from an unidentifiable source. Nicholas was standing above him, smirking.

"You- Son of a Zecking Irlonian!" Theilo spat, fighting against his bonds. Just the sight of Nicholas was enough to send his blood boiling now. He hated that man. When Nicholas saw that there was a danger of Theilo actually escaping his bonds, he reached forward and grabbed Theilo's hand, pressing onto his tattoo. Immediately, Theilo went limp as if he was dead, unable to move a muscle. Satisfied, Nicholas untied the invisible bonds with a wave of his hand, then sat down on a black rock chair that appeared suddenly out of the rocky ground.

"Not so keen on your deal now, Theilo?" he asked with a smirk and a lilt of his head. When Theilo didn't answer, merely glared, Nicholas continued.

"I purposely had you killed, just so you know. You are much more use to me as a spirit than a mortal." He looked casually at his manicured nails, raising one eyebrow as he found an imperfection. He blew on them, and it vanished.

"What do you want with me? Why am I so important?" Theilo growled. Nicholas regarded him with improved respect. Theilo had already seen that he was more average from the normal soul… interesting. Very interesting. He might actually be… Too agitated to sit, Nicholas rose. After a moment of thought, he began to speak, relating the History.

_Many millennia ago, I was… cast down from the higher planes into this… this cesspool. Many of my followers also were cast down with me. But there was one angel. An angel named __Amilith __, whose sins__- and power!-__ were __much __greater than mine. As punishment, instead of sending him down with the other angels, he was cast onto the mortal planes. Doomed to __wander there, invisible to the mortals. That would have been fine within itself, and things progressed normally for many, many millennia. Man came about, and evolved. After some time, our… spies among the humans… noticed some strange things happening. The humans disobeyed- (Here his throat constricted, as if he couldn't bear to say the name. He held his hand up to his throat, trying to say it, but finally gave up.)- they disobeyed. This was unexpected, since…. Since they were created by-(Again, he was frustrated by his inability to pronounce the blessed word) they should have obeyed without question. But they didn't. Repeatedly throughout their history, again and again, they became corrupt, evil creatures, turning to worship other Gods. Of course, I was blamed for tempting them. But… I __may only visit the mortal planes once every two years. That is nowhere enough time for me to convert entire races to the darkness. I wish it were! __The spirit I think is responsible, the one who has been tempting the humans and leading them to becoming evil, is __Amilith __. I've had my spirits do some research, and we think that he inhabits a human body, shares it with a human soul. We think you… Are that soul._

Theilo lay stunned on the ground. Even if he could move, he wouldn't have been able to. He was shocked, angered. Yet… It made sense. The evil thing within him, separate from the human that had just woken up. It made absolute sense. And for the first time, he could feel the two different parts of himself.

"You want… You want Amilith ?" He asked Nicholas, wondering what was going to happen to him. If they wanted him, they would have to get rid of, or kill the human within him, right?

"Yes. Amilith - " The unexpected call, in a guttural, broken form of Katana's speech, made his body arc with pain. He felt the spirit within him leave, hover outside of him. As it left, he felt something within him snap- instead of the natural superiority that he had felt all his life, now he simply felt like a normal human. He raised his hand into the air, closing on empty space in a pitiful gesture. The power that he had always had, had always depended on, was gone. And he was left feeling empty. After a few moments, he could see it- it bore a faint resemblance to him in the silver hair and dark blue eyes, but the face was different- more jagged. He was taller than Theilo, too- but his most distinctive feature were the giant black wings protruding from his back. They were like a bat's wings, evil and wrong-looking. When he threw back his head and laughed, rows of sharp teeth glistening in the sickly light. And the laugh that echoed from his mouth was like the howling of a hundred demented monkeys, building up instead of fading. A million echoes came back from the vaulted room. Even Nicholas stepped back, unsure of the intruder.

"Nicholas." Amilith said calmly, meeting his former ally's eyes. His voice was like the scraping of ten thousand nails on a chalkboard. Nicholas nodded at Amilith , extending his hand. Hesitantly, Amilith took it, shaking it till Nicholas winced.

"Amilith . It has been a long time." Nicholas said, looking him up and down. Amilith nodded, glancing around himself. He took no notice of Theilo, weak and crippled, lying several feet off.

"You have built a haven for yourself, brother. What do you call it?" On the floor, Theilo hastily stifled a intake of breath in surprise. _Brother!_ So Amilith was Nicholas's brother? Very strange…

"Hell. Or Hades, or the Inferno. Whichever you prefer. Come, tell me, how have you fared these thousands of years?" Nicholas asked, not even glancing at Theilo on the floor. Figuring that this information was important, Theilo stayed perfectly still, listening. The fallen angels continued their conversation.

"Fine. My last host was naturally… inclined to darkness, with above-average mortal intelligence. My favorite so far, although I have to say that the man on Earth was quite fun. The… German, I think he was called." He smirked, turning to look at Theilo. Theilo pushed himself up to a sitting position slowly, wincing as he did, and met Amilith 's eyes calmly.

"What should we do with you, 'Lord of War'?" Amilith asked Theilo mockingly. Theilo merely gritted his teeth and glared. What right did this demon have to push him around? None at all!

"On the contrary, my friend, I have _every right_ to push you around. After all, I inhabited you for your whole life." Amilith remarked. Theilo blanched. This… demon could read his mind! If the angel could read his mind, did that mean he knew everything about him? Every secret, every bit of his past? His past…

"Amilith - who was I? As a… a final payment to your host, please tell me! I need to know!" He pleaded. Normally, he wouldn't have done such a thing, but he had to know. He had to!

Amilith merely laughed and turned. "I'm not telling you your past, human!" he called over his shoulder as he walked away with Nicholas. Theilo's face twisted into a mask of hatred, and, powered with a sudden strength, he rose slowly to his feet. "You take my life. You use me as… as a puppet. You will meet your destruction at my hands!" Theilo said clearly. Amilith took no notice, talking with Nicholas. With a primal burst of energy, he ran forward, and started attacking Amilith . His first punch landed squarely in the small of Amilith 's back, and Amilith turned in fury. Theilo kept attacking him with an impossible strength, forcing the fallen angel to fight back. But Theilo could not keep it up forever. After several seconds, Amilith managed to hit him squarely in the stomach, and Theilo flew backwards, hitting his head on the floor. He lay in a stupor, and Amilith walked over to him. "You're brave, mortal, but after all, you're just a mortal now." He told Theilo as the darkness overtook him.

Alene desperately swung at her two opponents, pushed to her limit. "Katana!" she yelled desperately. "Help me!" The angel couldn't respond, however, her opponent engaging her fiercely. As Alene fought, her mind raced to Theilo. Where was he? Did he know that she was going to rescue him? Or did he think that she was never going to come? She reflected grimly that that might be the truth- the crow-people were wearing her out fast, and they seemed as fresh as ever. Then- a fatal mistake. She stepped wrong on her leg, causing her to trip backwards and fall. Immediately, Yellowtooth was holding his sword to her throat. She closed her eyes and uttered an internal prayer.

"Angel!" Yellowtooth jeered. Nightshade stopped fighting her as his brother called her name. Katana drew up her sword to hit him- then saw Alene with a blade at her throat. Katana froze, her mind at a crossroads. She could forget the human, go on to find the Master of Planes, get back with the information. Alene opened her eyes and looked at Katana calmly. She was perfectly confident that Katana would come to her aid. There was complete trust in those human eyes. Katana broke, putting down her sword. She had become attached to the human as if she was an angel. She was like… a friend. Katana had never had friends before…

"You will come with us, or your friend dies." Blackclaw hissed. Katana nodded, her wings drooping as she handed her sword to Nightshade. Alene looked up at Katana as she walked over, nearly in tears. "Katana- No one's ever done that for me." She told the angel as she handed her dagger to Yellowtooth. "Ever sacrificed anything that important. Thank you." She sat up and allowed Yellowtooth to tie her hands behind her back. Katana stared at the human. There was something in her voice that no creature had ever spoken to her with. Gratitude. The human was… thankful. Amazing… She had never thought that humans were capable of gratitude or any other emotion like that. Especially not after she had found out what she had while on her mission.

The creatures lifted off, Alene held between Yellowtooth and Blackclaw, Nightshade pointing his sword at Katana. The party flew over all the regions of Hell, Alene's eyes widening and Katana cringing every time they encountered a fresh version of the horrors of the damned. But the worst thing came when they approached Satan's castle. Katana stiffened and stopped in her tracks, all the silvery color draining from her face. She seemed to have been seized by a mortal terror more profound than the profoundest human emotion, a terror that was ingrained into every cell of her body. She turned, as if to flee, but Nightshade grabbed her roughly and dragged her forward. Alene, seeing Katana's reaction to the monstrosity ahead, struggled violently until Yellowtooth laid a sword to her neck. As they entered, Katana shook in a violent shiver, nearly throwing Nightshade off. Her body spasmed and buckled, some sort of strange affliction overcoming her. They carried the two frightened prisoners to the dungeons- dark cells with no light at all, no sound. It was incredibly claustrophobic. Alene screamed, wrestling against the birds until they forced her into a cell. There, she curled up into a little ball. Claustrophobia was one of her deepest, darkest fears- she hated small, confined spaces. This may have been due to the fact that she had spent the past couple years of her life on gigantic starships in the vastness of space.

"General Nikas? Is that you?" Alene jumped, and looked around cautiously. Theilo's face appeared an inch from her, and she yelped and recoiled. There was something different about his face now. It was… softer. Almost kinder. "Lord Theilo?" she asked him. He shook his head, his face haggard. "No… Please, my name is Iroras. Not… Not Lord. Not anymore." Theilo could scarcely have shocked Alene any more than if he had suddenly proclaimed his love for blueberry muffins in a bass operatic style. She stared, open-mouthed and bug-eyed at him, completely lost for words. "My.. Lord?" she asked in a strangled sort of tone. What the ZECK was he thinking? Had he gone totally out of his mind? Theilo saw the confusion in her eyes, and sighed. He ran a hand through his hair, then started to speak.

"Look… I just found out that the person- or demon- that was controlling the fleet, the person you knew as Theilo, was a spirit. A fallen angel inhabiting my body. That wasn't… wasn't me. Nicholas- he drew him out and is going to use him for something." He said, trying to find the right words. It was suddenly so difficult to get ideas across. Before, he had always had an ice-cold answer, ready and smooth. Now, he felt helpless.

Alene blinked twice. It was incredible, but no more less incredible than anything else that had happened in the last couple days or so. "Iroras?" she asked, trying the name out. It fit him, she decided. Or at least, it fit the new him.

"You think I'm insane?" Theilo asked Alene. Funny, how he had never noticed how beautiful she was before. Sort of a rough beauty, wild and untamed. Like those old pictures of horses. As she met his eyes, about to say something, he felt like he had been hit by a mountain. Her eyes were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. They swirled like dark galaxies, sucking him in and penetrating him to the core of his entire being. Why had he never noticed them before…?

Alene shook her head, staring into his dark blue eyes. "No… No, I don't think you're insane. Listen, they've got Katana. We need to get out of here and get her to the higher planes." She told him.

Iroras pulled himself together. Alene was right. They had to get Katana back from wherever she was being held. But… "Why exactly is she so important?" he asked her. Alene sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"I don't exactly know. She was going to tell me, but she never had the chance. It's something important." She felt like her mind was fogged by a cloud of exhaustion and fear. How long had it been since she had slept…

Iroras nodded. There was something that had been bugging him, something that he wanted to ask Alene. "Alene… Am I dead?" he asked her, not quite meeting her eyes. There was a tense silence.

"Yes and no." Alene said slowly. "Katana talked to me about it. She said that there's a way for you to get a body back… But only she knows it. She was going to tell me more, but we got attacked by these strange… crow- people. She said…" Alene stared into the darkness, trying to remember. God, she was tired. Fog seeped through her brain, obscuring her brain. She rubbed her brow furtively, trying to remember.

"I think she said that there you were a ghost- and that you could become alive again if you were freed from whatever debt you have with Nicholas." Alene said slowly, rubbing her brow as she spoke. So tired… She felt her head droop, and she shook herself.

Iroras stared down at his hands. Dead. A ghost. As he stared, he noticed something. The fiery cross- It was still there! But that didn't make any sense! Nicholas had already gotten what he had needed from him. With a dawning sense of horror, Iroras realized that, like himself, Nicholas would never let go of a useful servant. So he was still bound to the devil, his soul was still in servitude. He let his head drop forward into his hands, trying desperately to think of every possible way he could free himself from the bondage he was in. Nothing came to him. As e raked his brain feverishly, he heard something hit the floor. He looked up to see that Alene had fainted from sheer exhaustion, sleeping as soundly on the floor as if it were a hoverbed. Smiling for one of the first times in his life, Theilo walked over to her, and took off an outer jacket of his. He laid it across her and stepped back. Then, softly, he spoke. "Alene… I'm sorry. For everything I've done to you, for everything I've put you through. I don't expect forgiveness, no. I've done too much to deserve that. I just ask that you help me to help Katana. Then go, live your life. Forget about me, what I've done to you, forget about everything that has happened. I don't want to hurt anyone anymore." He took his time, choosing his words carefully. She might never hear him, but that didn't matter. What did matter was that he said it. He needed to say it, to relieve himself of the memories. What he would do after this was all over… he didn't know. How could he pick up all the pieces? Pieces he didn't even know existed before? How could he rediscover his past when he had blown that planet up? He mentally cursed himself as he sat down on the hard, cold floor and drifted off to sleep. His dreams that night were filled with bits and pieces of his shadowy past, always eluding him and laughing as they darted around his slow, clumsy fingers.

Chapter Seven: Hostages

Katana slowly fluttered towards the throne room, pushed on by Yellowtooth, her heart heavy. She had given herself up… for the human. She was lost now- the Plan was lost- the worlds were lost. As she flew into the room, the cold atmosphere pierced her heart. She bit back a cry of pain, of hopelessness, of despair. Her wing beats were slow, her silver skin was dull. The normally bright eyes were lifeless as she looked around her. What had she done? Abandoned everything she had been Awakened for- for a mortal. For a human, which was even worse. What she saw standing next to Nicholas only made her heart fall lower. As she entered the room, her body shuddered from the pure evil that was contained in the room.

Amilith stiffened as Katana entered the room. Nicholas shot him a glance, and Amilith , who had been about to speak, fell silent. "Katana." Nicholas said, rising from a throne of black stone. It was the same room that he had held Theilo in, except the mysterious light was a little brighter.

Katana stared at the ground. She had betrayed her Creator, yes, by allowing herself to be captured, but she wouldn't give any more help to- to him. She couldn't even think the name without a piercing agony penetrating her whole body. She was heartbroken as she glanced up at him. What had happened to him, to all of them?

"You have information about my Plan. What do you know?" Nicholas asked her, smirking as he rose from his seat and walking over to her. She stared at the ground, not answering. A wrinkle appeared on Nicholas's brow as he frowned. "I am asking you _nicely_, Katana, for old time's sake. We knew each other, we were both there. BUT I won't have any qualms about hurting, even killing you if you don't answer me."

Katana swallowed and raised her head. His words hurt her. "You used to be so different…" She said softly, not meeting his eyes. Nicholas's jaw clenched and his hands formed into fists. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"I am asking for information, nothing more. ANSWER ME!" He ended with a shout that reverberated around the room, causing Katana to wince. When she merely stared at the floor, a touch of tears misting her eyes, Nicholas reached out and grabbed her arm. The effect was immediate. Burn marks spread from his hand onto her arm, but as her skin was charred, so was his. Katana cried with pain and leapt backwards, nearly falling on top of Yellowtooth. Nicholas flexed his arm, relishing the pain. It felt good, made him feel powerful. He took a step towards Katana, who was still holding her blackened arm and holding back tears of pain.

"Tell me what you found. Or I will grab your arm and not let go." He threatened her. His eyes were filled with malice, his handsome face twisted into a scowl. A part of his real self showed through, an ugly evil.

Katana met his eyes calmly, responding in a placid, unafraid tone. "I will not tell you anything, even if you kill me… _Satan._" The name hurt Nicholas and caused him to wince. He glared at her. How DARE she use his old angel name?!

"You DARE-!" he said through clenched teeth. Katana nodded, meeting his eyes and lifting her head proudly.

"Yes, I dare. Yahweh says it, and so shall I. You may hide behind names like Nicholas, or Devil, but you will always be Satan to me." She responded. Nicholas let out a growl of pain and rage, clutching his ears as Katana spoke the sacred name. She stared down at him, the figure of stone- hard resolve. Inside, she wasn't so certain. Nicholas, Nicholas! What had _happened _to him???

"Let me try, brother." Amilith walked down beside Nicholas. Katana shrank from him as if he were a deadly disease, her eyes wide in fear. He smiled at her, showing his incisors. "Not so brave now, right, Katana?" he laughed.

"You… You are the Banished One." Katana whispered, her eyes wide. She stepped back as Amilith advanced towards her. These angels were such fun to play with- easily scared when confronted with true evil. His brother had promise, but he just didn't cut it.

"I am. And you… I remember you. You are the Twilight Angel." Amilith said, nodding graciously, but mockingly, at her. She nodded, too afraid to speak. "You were the one who was neither fallen nor raised. G- (his throat constricted, and he swallowed. Katana took heart from this.) You were used to explore mortal realms, one of the only able to withstand all the planes." Katana nodded again, still not speaking. The words hurt her more than she showed. No, she was not raised like the others. But she was lucky… lucky that she hadn't turned out like Nicholas.

"Then… if you are not wholly sacred… then I can do- This!" Without warning, Amilith jumped forward and grabbed her waist in both hands. Katana screamed, an unearthly keening sound as his hands burnt her immediately. As she writhed and twisted, trying to get free, he held on.

"Tell me what information you have!" he commanded her. She shook her head, tears pouring from her eyes as the pain doubled- tripled- quadrupled. She curled up into a little ball on the floor, Amilith still holding tightly onto her as a mother onto a child. But not with love.

Katana broke. It was impossible not to- the pain was unbearable, extreme, the likes which of no creature before had experienced. "The Breach!" She screamed. Amilith released her as she sobbed quietly, curled up into a little ball. The silver skin around her waist was charred and burnt, perhaps fifth and sixth degree burns. Even as they watched, the burns healed slowly, until she was silver-skinned once more. She lay on the floor, without hope, without any sort of pride left. She tried to bring her hand up to clasp around her throat, to kill herself so as to end what she had done, to erase the blemish, but was too weak.

"So. You- somehow- gathered- information- about- the- Breach- and- were- going- to- bring- it- to- higher- up." Nicholas said, kicking her savagely with every word. She accepted the pain as part of a retribution for her unfaithfulness. How could she have betrayed her oath? How? For that was part of her punishment for supporting Nicholas at the beginning. Wandering and doing Yahweh's bidding without spiritual rest, never being able to rest for even a second in the cold silence of the place where angels rested. When she had fulfilled her oath… then she could rest. Rest- how she wanted it. She felt parched without a sight of rest, silence, or the heavenly planes.

As Alene calmly met Nicholas's eyes, a flicker of an emotion crossed her face, immediately disappearing. A flicker of her true self, coming out from behind the façade that she held up in front of herself. As soon as it crossed her face, he fell to his knees, clutching his chest and crying in pain. After several minutes, the pain stopped. He shook his head, slowly rising. Amilith nodded at him. "Brother- What should we do with the angel?" he asked him. Nicholas thought for a moment, glancing at Katana with curled lip and expression of disgust.

"Have her thrown in the prisons, to rot with the humans. That should be a suitable punishment. What do you think, Katana? You'll stay forever. In the dark, no sight of rest or the spirit planes. With the humans who caused your downfall. Sound like anyone else we know?" Laughing slightly, he gave her still form one last, savage kick and turned to Yellowtooth.

"Take her away, down to the prisons. Throw her in with the humans. Oh, and bring me Theilo. I have some... things I need him to do." He threw back his head and laughed, and Amilith joined in. Their laughter echoed throughout the regions of Hell, sounding like a demented pack of wolves.

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Alene was woken by the sound of their cell door being opened and something- or someone being thrown in. She felt around for who it was, the darkness still closing in around her. Her hand touched a feathery wing, and she jerked back in surprise. It was Katana!

"Katana?" Alene whispered. Theilo, standing beside her, peered through the dark, cursing the fact that there wasn't any light. If there was, he could see what was wrong with her. Wait… He dug around in his pocket, finally producing a laser- beam. It was a small silver device with a nuclear battery, and provided nearly unlimited light. He turned it on, then recoiled in disgust.

They were in a row of cells that stretched on forever. Souls, or what had once been souls, lay listlessly in the adjoining cells. At the light, they dully raised their heads and turned to the source. Their bodies were little more than skin stretched across skeletons, with dull and haunted eyes. The creature next to them slowly crawled towards the light, its eyes fixed on the source. When it reached the bars, it grasped them and pulled itself up to a standing position. It opened and closed a toothless mouth soundlessly. Alene reflexively stepped back as it looked through the bars hungrily, but Theilo stood his ground, watching the poor soul with an almost pitying look.

"L-L-ligh-ligh-t." the creature croaked. Alene stepped backwards in alarm, then recoiled as she realized the the creatures on the other side were doing the same. All of them were staring, not speaking, just staring at the light in Theilo's hand.

It was then that it occurred to Alene to look down at Katana. What she saw was enough to make her run to the angel, and kneel down beside her. Her body was battered and bruised, her eyes glassy and dull. Alene felt tears gathering in her eyes. Not Katana. Not now, after all they had been through. "Katana. No, not now." She whispered. "We… we need you." She kept her tears at bay, trying to think of a way to save the dying angel. A thought occurred to her. She put her two flattened hands together, in a V shape. She rested her head on her hands, then she prayed. She didn't even know what she said, but she prayed harder than she had ever prayed for anything in her entire life. As she prayed, Katana's wounds began to heal. Her skin grew brighter. Her eyes blinked, once, twice. And then she sat up.

Alene looked up. Katana was smiling, smiling with tears glistening in her eyes. "You prayed for me." She said simply. Alene nodded, looking around at all the souls on either side of them.

"Katana. Glad you're back." Iroras said shortly, awkwardly. Katana inclined her head. "Look, we need to know the truth. Now. Everything that's going on. If you can't tell us that, at least tell me how to get this- (he gestured at the back of his hand)- off of me."

Katana sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I cannot tell you the Plan here, in Hades. But I _can _tell you how to escape your bondage so that we can find the Planesmaster." She told him.

"The Planesmaster?" Iroras repeated, brow wrinkled. What was the Planesmaster? Alene and Katana nodded.

"He is the guardian of the Planes. He is… he's in all places at once, I suppose you could say. He's here, he's on the mortal planes, he's on Purgatory, he's in Heaven." She told him, glancing around her. "Or at least, he was in all places at once. Nicholas captured him an Earth year ago. It's part of what made me come here in the first place, and get onto your ship." She caught sight of Iroras and Alene's questioning faces, and shook her head. "No, I cannot explain that, either. The walls here have ears…" She glanced around, then caught sight of the souls staring at her. She stood up, and walked over to the nearest one, the one who had spoken. Her face was full of pity, and a touch of horror. She reached a hand through the bars, to lightly touch his skin. At his touch, he sighed. What happened next caught the other totally by surprise. His body disintegrated, turned into a smoke that vanished with another, expectant, sigh. Katana turned back to the speechless Iroras and Alene.

"I freed his soul from bondage. He's gone on to the Purgatory planes, to pay a less harsh penance there." As she spoke, she walked to the other side of the cell and brushed the almost-mummified hands that were sticking through, with the same result as before. Iroras held out his hand mutely, and Katana shook her head.

"I can free souls from their sins. I cannot free souls sold to Satan."She told him. Iroras dropped his hand and nodded ruefully, examining the tattoo on the back of his hand with a rueful air.

"However." Katana said. Iroras looked up hopefully. "I can tell you how to break it." She said. Iroras nodded, prompting her to go on. Whatever it took, he would do it. Whatever it took. "You have to get Nicholas to take it off." Katana finished, sighing. Iroras blinked several times, swearing mentally.

"How…" He started. Katana held up her hand. "You have to make him touch the back of your hand somehow. Even if it is for the merest second, the binding will come off and you will be free. It's still early enough in the bonding that that will do it. As soon as that happens, run. Run like the wind until you get out onto the Plains. We'll meet you there." She told him, saying everything very clearly so that he understood what he was supposed to do. Then, hesitating, she smiled ruefully. "Good luck." She told him as Nightshade approached their cell. Theilo hastily flicked out his light and handed it to Alene. They were plunged into complete darkness once again.

"Theilo- get out here." Nightshade grunted. He opened the cell and grabbed Iroras. With inhuman strength, Iroras freed himself from the demon and turned to where he thought Alene was. Katana suddenly started to glow, smiling at Alene and Iroras. She could produce light, but it was a strain. That didn't matter, however- this could be the last time that they saw each other. Iroras sighed and ran his hand through his long silver hair.

"Good luck, Lord Iroras." Alene said, bringing her hand up in a salute. Iroras smiled ruefully, and returned the salute. He hesitantly, awkwardly brushed her cheek with his hand, then turned and allowed himself to be herded out of the prison.

Alene stood stock- still, then slowly reached up to touch her cheek where Iroras had touched her. A single tear rolled down her cheek and splashed on the floor. She took no notice of it, staring where Iroras had vanished to. After several moments, she shook herself and turned to Katana, turning on Iroras's light as Katana dimmed.

"So- How do plan to escape?" she asked her, her voice and demeanor once again that of a General in a war zone- commanding, inspiring, and rough. Katana walked up to the bars, and grabbed one of them with her hand. It immediately glowed silver and turned to ashes. Alene raised her eyebrows.

"Nice- but wouldn't Nicholas suspect that you could do that?" she asked the angel with a raised eyebrow. She had a hard time believing that Nicholas would put an angel with that kind of power into a cell without guards, or reinforcements, or something.

"Yes- but the guards that put us in here didn't. He'll probably be furious when he finds out." Katana pointed out, stepping back from the bars. "We'll have to time our escape perfectly- when the guards change. Then we can make a break for it, find our way out of here, and meet Iroras outside on the plains."

Alene's soldier sense was buzzing like a power saw in the back of her skull as Katana told her the plan. "So many things could go wrong, Katana!" she said, biting her lip. "The guards could not give us enough time, we could easily get caught, or we could make it out onto the Plains and Iroras… and Iroras might not make it."

Katana nodded grimly. "I know. But it's the best plan we have." She responded. There was a long, long silence as Alene took a deep breath and looked around herself at the poor, damned souls.

"Katana- what will happen to Iroras if he isn't able to get the bond lifted?" she asked tersely. Her hand rose up to her cheek as she spoke. He had touched her, looked like he had cared…

"He will become a servant of Nicholas's for all time. Eventually, he won't- won't look human anymore. He'll change from being so close to such evil." Katana responded, looking around at all of the poor souls in the prisons.

"Will he look like all of them?" Alene asked, gesturing at the other souls in bondage. Katana shook her head, frowning as she tried to think of a good way to explain it.

"No, he'll change into something that reflects his sins, what he's done. In his case, that would be something that reflects the people he's killed. I'm not sure- every Servant has a unique appearance." She said, glancing at Alene. Alene really did seem to like him. She was certainly loyal…

"Let's hope that he does get it lifted." Alene said, but without much hope. How could things turn out to be fine here? In this dark, dismal place without hope or light or any sort of love. The two beings waited in the dark, praying and hoping that everything would go smoothly.

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Iroras looked backwards once more as he was herded along by Nightshade. Alene was still standing there, watching him disappear. With a sigh, he turned back towards the front. His eyes narrowed and his fists clenched. He would get the curse lifted. He had to correct what he had done. It was strange, knowing that all his actions for years hadn't been his, hadn't been directly his fault. _Not __directly__ your fault. You could have stopped __Amilith__ if you had wanted to_, he reminded himself. _Now you have to fix all the trouble you've caused_.

As they reached the throne room, however, Iroras did not feel so confident. The air emanating from the room was cold as the deep reaches of space, and foreboding as a tiger with a human skull in its jaws. He took a deep breath and was pushed in by Nightshade. The small rock door was slammed shut behind him. After looking carefully behind him to note where the door was, Iroras turned around.

In front of him was a gigantic throne, carved from a giant slab of black marble into something that suspiciously resembled a human skull. Amilith and Nicholas were standing in front of it, quietly talking. Iroras, deciding that he wanted a better look, crept stealthily forward. As he did so, however, Nicholas whipped around and spotted him sneaking up.

"Theilo. Sit down, won't you?" he asked him, in a mocking tone. Iroras shook his head, tight- lipped. He glared at Nicholas and Amilith with an almost rabid hate. Amilith nodded at Nicholas, sneered at Iroras, and left.

"I have a job for you, Theilo." Nicholas said, waving his hand in the air. As he did so, Iroras found himself sitting down on the ground, bound like a puppet. He felt himself become ensnared like a fly in a web, unable to move, or even breathe, without Nicholas's command. In fact… He found himself unable to breathe or move, paralyzed helplessly. He tried to make a strangled noise in his locked throat- but failed, so complete was Nicholas's control over him.

"I've heard your little plots in the dungeons- your angel friend was right, there really are ears in the walls." He continued. Iroras felt himself becoming dizzy from lack of air. Nicholas turned to catch sight of an oxygen-deprived Iroras, and chuckled.

"Oh, forgive me." He said mockingly, snapping his fingers. Iroras could breathe again, and he did, in huge gulps of sweet, sweet oxygen. Nicholas continued what he had been saying.

"You are going to be released from the prisons, but-" he held up a hand. "You are going to be carrying something, something that will cause quite a bit of trouble in heaven when you get there, Theilo."

Iroras shook his head. "First, my name is Iroras. Second, I'm not going to carry anything for you. You'll have to force it into my hand." Saying that, he rose slowly from the sitting position that Nicholas had forced him into. Nicholas gaped at him, not understanding how the human- kilas was able to break one of the most powerful bonds that he had. Unless… he narrowed his eyes. Only one thing could break any bond he cast.

"It's Alene, isn't it?" He snarled. Love. It was love that broke his power, love that killed him. Theilo froze, not letting the image of Alene fade from his mind- The figure watching him all the way out.

Nicholas chuckled, the sound building until it filled the cavern with the sound of ten thousand maniacs laughing. Iroras winced, but kept his mind on his General. The laughter died as Nicholas saw that his laughter had no effect on Iroras. He snapped his fingers at a demon standing by the door. "Uliath! Bring me the other human." He said, glancing at Iroras. Iroras felt his heart turn to ice. Not his General. Not Alene, after everything they had been through… He couldn't bear to see her suffer more at his hands, to see anyone bear what he had laid upon their backs.

"So… You love General Nikas." Nicholas said, walking in a circle around Iroras. Nicholas felt his fists clench and his eyes narrow in anticipation. To watch Theilo's face as the one he loved was slowly broken down, reduced to mental rubble. He flexed his hand, feeling the power there. The power to destroy millions of lives under his heel, to watch them all die with a single movement of his. The power that he reveled in.

Uliath the demon brought a struggling Alene in. As she saw Nicholas, she fell still, not afraid, but wary of this new opponent. Iroras turned to her, eyes providing comfort and warmth. She smiled back, half- saluting him.

"Welcome, Nikas, to Hell." Nicholas said as she freed herself from the demon. She looked around herself warily, walking over to stand next to Iroras after she had made sure that there were no prevalent threats. Nicholas walked up to the couple, smiling a predator's smile. Theilo moved slightly in front of Alene, to shield her from Satan. Nicholas laughed slightly, and flicked his fingers backwards. Immediately, Alene was dragged forward by some invisible force, to stand shuddering in front of Nicholas.

Iroras felt the dawnings of fear in his heart. He tried to move forward, to help Alene, but he was frozen again. Frozen by fear that Nicholas was controlling. Nicholas snapped his fingers and a blue fire blossomed in his hand, a fire that seemed to give off the stink of a thousand rotten corpses. Alene shuddered and tried to move back, only to find herself frozen like Iroras.

"Theilo- save her if you love her!" Nicholas called out mockingly, holding the fire dangerously close to Alene's face. She flinched as the skin on her face began to dry and crack from being so close to the devil's flame. As Nicholas pressed it closer, watching Iroras intently, Alene bit back a cry of pain. The fire had caught her, and was spreading across her body. Unlike a normal fire, the blue flames did not burn her clothing and skin. It merely caused intense heat and pain as if she was really burning. Alene fell to her knees as Nicholas stepped back. Sweat was dripping down Theilo's brow as he watched in agony, unable to speak, move, or even shut his eyes.

After a minute or so, Nicholas stepped forward and clicked his fingers. The blue flames came back to rest on his fingertips. Alene fell down onto the floor, crying and gasping for air at the same time. Her body was burning all over still, hurting worse than any other pain she had ever experienced. The blue fire, worse than pain, had made her remember every single spiteful deed she had ever done, like the Cave of Mirrors except a hundred times worse. She lay on the black rocky ground and tried not to cry. Nicholas wanted Iroras to do something, that much was clear. And she wasn't going to give Iroras reason to give in.

"Well- what will it be, Theilo? Will you let Alene die? Or will you give in?" Nicholas hissed. _Don't,_ Alene mentally begged the defeated- looking form standing in front of her. _I don't care what happens to me- just help Katana._

Iroras looked down at Alene. She was streaked with soot from the blackened floor, eyes red with tears. The scar on her face had somehow came open, a red thread running from the left side of her mouth to her left eyebrow. Her clothes were ripped and torn, and her eyes haunted. He took a deep breath, knowing that what he was about to say would cause him extreme pain in the future.

"I'm speaking for Alene, for Katana, when I say this. I don't know what Katana wants me to do, or why exactly it's so important, but I know that it's more valuable than my life, than Alene's life. It's- It's what Alene would want me to do." Alene sighed, closing her eyes once and letting her head sink back down into the ashes. _Thank you, Iroras. For doing the right thing._ She said mentally. She had been so afraid… So afraid that he would choose her. She would never have forgiven him for that. She was not more important than what Katana wanted them to do. Iroras closed his eyes, knowing that what he had just said would haunt him for all eternity. He opened them expecting that Alene would be on fire again, expecting that Nicholas would be laughing his head off. Instead, what he saw was quite different. Nicholas was standing with hands held loosely at his sides, his mouth slightly open as he stared at Iroras with something that could be called respect. At that moment, his power over Iroras diminished. And Iroras took the chance, leaping forward to grab Nicholas's hand. It touched his tattoo. With a flash of light, the tattoo was gone and Theilo felt a peculiar rush in his stomach. Suddenly, he was in a body again. He didn't look any different, save for a loss of transparency, but he _felt _100 different. He looked down at himself, feeling his hands, running his hands through his hair. Then he looked up. Nicholas was reaching for Alene with the blue flame.

With a shout, Iroras leapt forward and grabbed the unconscious General from the ground. Not wasting a single second, he ran for the door in the wall, wrenching it open and running down through the halls. As the demons took notice of him, they ran after him, a whole horde of beasts of all sorts on his trail. As he ran through the dark convoluted halls, he prayed for the first time in his life. _If there's someone up there, help me get Alene out. I don't care what happens to me, just help me get her out, _he said in his mind, hoping that someone was listening. He ran on, his boots skidding on the slimy dark stones of the tunnels as the demons behind him pursued him mercilessly. He felt himself tiring from Alene's weight, his feet slowing. His breath came in short gasps, his heart hammered against his ribs.

As he ran by a side tunnel, Iroras ducked in and pressed himself to the wall. The horde of demons ran by, ignoring the tunnel as if they couldn't see it. Deciding that he was safe for a while, Iroras set Alene gently down on the floor. Her eyes flickered open and caught sight of his anxious face. She smiled, reaching up to touch his unshaven chin.

"Alene- I'm sorry. You have to understand, I don't deserve anyone. You deserve better than me-" Iroras began. Alene shook her head, tears in her eyes.

"No, Iroras. You did what you had to do! I would've done the same in your place. You didn't have any other choice, I understand." She told him. He smiled almost comically.

"Still, I shouldn't have done that. You know how in books the heroes always sacrifice themselves for the love of their life? I'm not that kind of person, Alene, even if you think I am. I'm _not _a hero. Not now, not ever. You know what I want? I just want to- to end all of this. To give the people who I've hurt back their lives. To help Katana with what she has to do. Then- I don't know what I'll do, but I'll go somewhere to the ends of the galaxy. Disappear. Because I _can't _make a difference! I'm NOT a hero, do you understand me?! I'm not even a good person! I'll give people back their lives, then I'll disappear! I'm nothing. Nothing. Not a hero, not even someone who can pretend to be a hero. Because I'm not. I killed people for a living. I destroyed worlds, destroyed billions of lives. And I'm not right for you, Alene. You think- You think that I could be made into someone right for you, but I can't. You go find someone who can be a hero for you. I don't deserve you, not by a long shot. You're a good person, a woman who can make her husband happy. And I don't deserve happiness. I deserve to spend the rest of my life and most of my afterlife in penance for what I've done. You've seen what I've done, the people I've killed. And you've seen with your own eyes the horrors I've caused. Once this is over, I beg you to leave me, to find someone who can be your hero." Iroras ended, looking down at Alene with eyes of pity.

"No, Iroras." Alene said quietly. "I'm not a hero either. You know that. I blew up that planet- I'm just as guilty as you are. You can't gain anything from looking back at your past, at what you've done. You have to move on, even if you've done things so horrible that you think you can't forgive yourself." Alene stood up, facing him with a steely look in her eye. Iroras was shaking his head, sighing. She slapped him across the face, and he stumbled backwards, surprised.

"You can't look back, Iroras. You know what I've done? I can tell you what I've done. I can give you a whole list of all the terrible things I've done. Everyone's done terrible things. But we forget them and move on, we don't sulk about what we should have done!" Iroras was stunned, taken aback by her set jaw and glaring eyes. Deep inside of himself, he felt the embers of hope, long flickered out, flare.

"What you're saying? It's all self-pity, designed to look like you're being all noble with this "don't deserve you" crap. And I won't stand for it, cause all of us have taken knocks and gotten right back up and blasted the zeck out of our enemies." Angry, Alene was falling back into her old gang slang. She stopped as Iroras nodded.

"You're right." He said simply, leaving a lot unsaid as he met her eyes. She nodded, unsteady on her feet as she stepped back.

"But I still am not a hero, you do understand that?" he said, meeting her eyes again. She nodded, running her hand through her hair.

"I'm not asking you to be. I'm asking- ordering!- you to behave like the Lord you are and get us out of this mess that you got us into." Alene answered, sounding like the General she was. There was a moment of silence as they both stared at each other.

"All right, Iroras, we need to get Katana out of prison." Alene said, bringing Iroras's attention back to where they were (Hell) and what they were doing (Trying to escape). Iroras nodded, poking his head out of the side tunnel and glancing around. He felt unusually light, as if a tremendous burden had been taken off of his back. It had lifted partly when he had had his bond lifted, then more when Alene had yelled at him. Strange, that… But he knew what he had to do now- Just keep his mind on the task, do what he had to. Like when he was in a war zone. Already, he felt himself revert back to the "Do what needs to be done then get the zeck out of here" mode.

"We need to get to the prisons. We'll sneak down, get her out, and get onto the Plains. I think I recognize where we are. Follow me on one-" The Lord of War held up one finger, then two, then three, then closed his hand into a fist. Quietly and quickly, in half-crouches, they both ran out of the side passage and down the tunnel. Theilo concentrated hard as they wound through a maze of cold, damp, slimy passages with unpleasantly lumpy moss and algae growing from the walls. Right, left, straight… He breathed a huge sigh internally as they reached the prisons without meeting a guard or demon. Alene flicked on his laser and they walked in cautiously. Katana looked up as she heard their footsteps, and immediately ran to the bars of her cell. Iroras frowned. There was something wrong…

"You're in a different cell." He said sharply. Katana nodded, running her hands along the bars. There were faintly carved evil- looking symbols on the bars that lit up as her silver hands moved over them.

"After you left, the guard realized his mistake in putting me in the other cell when I melted the bars. I thought I could overpower him, but more came in when he yelled for help. They put me in here." She responded. Alene frowned, and kicked at the bars. All she got for her trouble was an injured foot. Iroras, meanwhile, was examining the symbols on the bars intently.

"Katana- what do these mean?" he asked her, running his agile, long hands over them.

"They're symbols to ward away any holy or blessed object from cutting through them." Katana explained. "If things in Hell do not have these symbols, a blessed object will be able to cut right through it, or melt it. And you can't get the key- these are opened by a tattoo like the one you bore until recently."

Iroras nodded, his brow wrinkled. "What if I still had the aura of the tattoo on my hand?" he asked, waving his hand in front of the keyhole to answer his own question. The door swung open, and Katana stepped out, surprised.

"I would think that the aura would have worn off by now." She commented, following Iroras as he led them to the end of the passage. He opened his hand in answer. Nicholas's cross was lying in his hand. Katana's eyes went wide as she saw it.

"I got it off Nicholas when I made him touch my hand. I thought that it might come in handy." Iroras told her, examining it. Katana nodded, her eyes still wide.

"Yes, it will be very helpful- he gives those crosses to his closest servants, and if you show it to any soul or demon in Hell, they'll do whatever you ask. This will make getting to the Planesmaster much, much easier." She said, still staring at it. Iroras closed his hand and slipped the cross into his pocket, and glanced up and down the passage. After checking that the coast was clear, he ran down it, followed by Katana and Alene.

"I saw a door- when I first came- a small side door." He explained in short breaths as they ran along. "I think I can remember where it is." He turned another corner, his boots skidding all over on the slimy stone slabs.

"You have a good memory." Alene remarked as they reached a small door in the wall ten minutes later. Iroras skidded to a stop and pushed on the door. It was locked. He swore under his breath, and waved the cross in front of it. No reaction. He slumped against the door, feverishly searching his brain- and fell backwards as the heavy door swung open on the Void of Despair. The sight before them was truly gruesome to behold- pale, greenish, ghostlike souls swirled in a black void before them, shrieking in unearthly voices.

Iroras, Alene, and Katana stared at the scene, unable to believe the utterly hopeless place before their eyes. A small path of black stone, about two feet wide, stretched off into the distance. Iroras clambered to his feet and set a hesitant foot upon it. It didn't break, so he ventured out onto it. After about ten minutes, Alene noticed something.

"Look!" she said, pointing. Some of the souls in the void were following them, a small group of about twenty or so. Katana shook her head, indicating that they should ignore them and keep going forward.

After a couple minutes, the cloud of souls about five feet behind them had grown to nearly a hundred souls. Katana's skin was paler than normal, and she looked more frightened than either Iroras or Alene had ever seen her. Iroras fell back to walk beside her, and whispered to her: "What is it, Katana?"

She glanced behind them. "As soon as the crowd gets agitated enough about us, grows enough in numbers, they'll try to attack us and- and suck our life energies. It's the only thing that eases their suffering, to sap the essence of life." She told him with a hint of anxiousness in her voice. He frowned at the souls behind him, then looked down at the cross still clenched in his fist.

"Would this do anything to them?" he asked her. Katana bit her lip, thinking as they walked quickly along.

"I don't know… I would think so, but I don't know what it would do to them- make them more agitated, or make them obey you. Either way, use it only as a last resort." She replied.

There was a long silence for about half an hour as they walked along the winding ribbon of the path. Constantly, the swirling green ghosts milled around them, watching and occasionally reaching out with unnaturally long arms. Unconsciously, the trio grew closer together as they walked farther and farther from where they had entered the strange place and as the cloud of ghosts following them grew ever larger. After a while, Alene spoke up.

"Katana- would it be safe for you to tell us about… what you call The Plan now? I'd like to know what exactly you're doing, what we're doing. Because, no offense, I want to make sure that it's worth it." She said pointedly. Iroras, who had grown more and more distant during the silence, started as she spoke, then nodded.

To Alene and Iroras's consternation and annoyance, Katana shook her head. When she saw their expressions, she smiled slightly at their annoyance with her.

"I cannot tell you in Hell- If I did, Nicholas would hear. Even here, where only the spirits of the damned can travel, he would still hear. His ears are everywhere- but I can tell you once we reach the next plane, where he has no influence." She told them, glancing behind her at the cluster of souls. Alene nodded understandingly, while Iroras resumed staring off into the distance. After a little while, Iroras surprised both Alene and Katana by turning and asking Katana a question.

"What planes will we have to travel through?" he asked her, watching her face closely as she contemplated on how to answer the question.

"After we leave Hell, you mean?" she asked him. He nodded, unconsciously rubbing his hand where the Satanic tattoo had been for a short period of time. She sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

"Well… You see, in order for an angel who's fallen onto the mortal planes to return, they have to traverse the levels of all the planes. After Hell, we would have to find another portal on your planes, then proceed into purgatory, then into the Heavenly Planes." She responded, glancing behind them for the hundredth time. Iroras bobbed his head in agreement, wryly thinking of what his soldiers would say when he arrived back with an angel, a seriously battered General, and an entirely new personality. Probably that he had either 1. Had gone completely insane (a fact which he didn't doubt) or 2. That a long-lost identical twin of his had killed him and taken his place.

"Iroras!" Alene had gone ahead, spotting some sort of door on the side of the path. It was simply a black marble slab floating in the air, with no keyhole or handle or anything of that sort. Katana and Iroras ran up, Katana breathing a sigh of relief that they had found it. There had been some rumors that Nicholas had simply killed the Planesmaster. Iroras waved Nicholas's cross in front of the door, expecting a result. When nothing happened, he tried pushing it. Nothing. Then he spotted a small niche that looked like it was made for the cross in his hand. He fitted it in, and breathed an internal sigh of relief as the door slid open. Unseen by Iroras, Katana, or Alene, a small black metal spider hooked itself onto Iroras's shirt as they entered the very strange new world.

Chapter Eight: The Planesmaster

As they entered, Alene looked about in amazement. If she had been a little more acquainted with ancient Earth history, she would have recognized the strange building floating in black space in front of them as the Parthenon, except done in black marble. Also, it was much, much larger, three or four times as wide and tall. The front eight pillars, which on the ancient ruins had been ionic with no adornments, were instead covered with intricate images of angels and demons fighting, scenes of Hell, Heaven, the mortal planes (Iroras even thought that he recognized the Black Ghost among the many images), and purgatory. In front of them floated the gigantic steps leading up to the strange building.

As the ascended the steps, Alene suddenly stopped and motioned for the others to be still. From deep inside they heard strange, haunting music that sounded like a combination of violin, harpsichord, harp, and flute. The melody seemed timeless, the music weaving a subtle spell over the trio as they stood, entranced. The haunting sound seemed to pull them in, so that they were standing by the front pillars before they knew it. The tug wasn't strong, but light as a feather. Alene stopped to examine the front columns as they went by. With a start, she realized upon closer inspection the images were _moving_, acting out scenes from the Bible, human history, and other places she didn't recognize. As she studied them, Katana whispered to her (it seemed natural to whisper in this place, though there was no reason not to) "It's the History of Creations." Alene nodded, staring at them until Katana gently tugged her away. She had to nearly carry Iroras away from the pillars, so intent was he on the images there.

They followed the haunting spell of the music deep inside the black halls of the building. The pillars inside (which carried no moving images) seemed to weave an intricate maze that was slowly drawing them to the very center of the mysterious building. There was no definite light source, yet the whole place was lit by a pure silver glow not unlike moonlight.

After about two hours of wandering, they found themselves in a center circular room of black marble. There was little in it, except for a strange man seated in the Lotus position on the floor, in the center of his room. He was playing some sort of elaborate instrument that looked like a harp that you played with a bow, with a flute attached to the top of it. The man himself was… strange. He appeared to be carved from light green jade, every body part seemed to be an incredibly detailed sculpture. But that wasn't all that was strange about him. He was basically human, in the roughest sense. But he had six arms and an eye in the middle of his forehead. The eye was slightly larger than the other two, and stayed open while the other, normal two were closed. It was pitch black, with just the faintest trace of starlight in its depths. His six arms were all identical, all delicately playing the instrument before him. He wore nothing, save for a robe that appeared to be carved from the same jade his body was made from. The only other distinctive feature of the room was the white hyacinths placed lining the edges, all glowing slightly and moving in an invisible breeze. The three travelers stood there, entranced by the haunting, eerie music that he was producing with four of his six arms. The other two arms were resting on his knees as he played. They did not know how long they stood there, simply listening to the haunting music.

But at last the man finished with a single, fading, drawn- out note, and drew his arms away from the instrument. There was now absolute silence as he stood up, faced the travelers, and opened his eyes. Immediately, the entire room changed. His eyes, which one would have expected to be carved from the same jade that made him, or the same color as his middle eye, were instead the most brilliant of diamonds you had ever seen, elaborately cut to resemble eyes. They were pupil- less, but cast millions of rainbows and a blinding silver light through the room. Alene realized with a start that the mysterious moonlight had come from this man's eyes. Even though they had been closed, some light must have leaked out the edges. His face was passive, eternal- like the face of a statue long since cut and staring into the distance.

The man took in the three travelers with his jeweled gaze, then spoke. His voice was like the pounding of waves on a seashore, like the mighty wind roaring over the oceans and sweeping ships along.

"What business do you have here- two mortals and one angel?" he boomed, his voice ringing throughout the entire room. He glared imperiously at them.

"We have come to ask entry to the mortal planes." Katana said, stepping forward bravely. "I speak for my two human companions- Lord Iroras and General Alene Nikas."

The giant man (he was well over six feet tall when standing erect) regarded her curiously. "Pray, tell me, how would an angel come into the company of two mortals this far in the depths of the Inferno?" he asked her with interest.

Katana was quick to respond, fearing, perhaps, his reaction if she didn't. She told him their story, starting from when she was cast down from the heavenly planes and up to where they had come in to find him. After she had finished her narration, he lifted a single eyebrow questioningly.

"That is a mighty strange tale, Katana, Twilight Angel. One of the strangest I have heard in a long, long time. I must think upon this- pray, make yourself comfortable in this place I have made for myself. I will be back in a day or so." After having said that, he departed, leaving an awed trio of travelers behind him. A small metal spider beeped and whirred as it sent a transmission back to headquarters.

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Back in Nicholas's castle, things were in an uproar. The Devil was not pleased with Iroras escaping, but when he received news of Katana and Alene's disappearance from the prisons, he was no less than irate.

"What do you _mean_, they escaped?!" he growled at the guard, his hand tapping on the side of his throne. The demon licked suddenly dry lips.

"Just what I said… master." He said weakly. "They just- disappeared-" he never got to finish his speech. With a snarl, Satan lobbed a blue fireball at the unlucky guard and watched him burn to the ground with a satisfied smirk on his face. It disappeared as a foul wind blew away the ashes, though, and he looked for someone else to kill. Several other demons close to the throne skipped hastily out of his throwing range.

"Brother, if I may…." Amilith said smoothly, stepping forward. Nicholas grunted for him to continue, distracted and angrily tapping his fingers on the side of the throne with so much force that they left indents in the marble.

"I have proof that they went to the Planesmaster. A spider managed to track them into his Temple. Do you want me to order a team be sent after them?" he asked. This news had a remarkable effect on Nicholas. He relaxed, seeming much more confident. He even smirked as he shook his head.

"No. You see- if they carry that thing into another plane, the first level of the Great Seal will be broken. It works to my advantage." He told Amilith. Amilith nodded, then, unexpectedly, sprung forward and rammed a spike of green flame that he had hidden behind his back through his brother's chest. Nicholas collapsed onto the floor, gasping for air and glaring at his brother with eyes full of hatred.

"You see, brother- I cannot possibly get the power I want when you're in my way. It's much better this way- I'm a better ruler than you are." Amilith said smoothly. Nicholas narrowed his eyes at him, coughing and choking for air. He tried to grab Amilith, but his grasp was feeble. His hand fell limply to the ground as Amilith laughed. The fires of Hell burnt in Amilith's eyes as he reached forward to take his brother's cross key, the key that would open any door in Hell to him, the Key that designated him leader. The joy on his face turned to horror as he realized that the cross wasn't there!

"Where is it?!" he yelled, shaking his brother's shoulders. Satan merely smirked and shook his head, the life already dimming from his eyes. Black flame dripped from Amilith's frame and his eyes glowed red as he kicked his brother savagely.

"Tell-Me-Where-It-is!" he snarled, kicking the nearly dead form with a vengeance at every word. Satan shook his head and laughed weakly, not stopping even when Amilith brought a foot crashing down on his face. He was still laughing when his soul freed itself from his body and disappeared to one of the deepest regions of Hell. Amilith flung back his head and roared a senseless scream of frustration to the ceiling of Hell. It bounced off the walls of the room, coming back at him three times louder. He finally stopped, and spun to face the author of this story. She was quietly typing in a corner, observing everything that was going on and typing it all down. She looked up, surprised that he could see her. "WHY?!" he screamed, stalking over and bringing a fist down on her laptop. She moved the machine out of the way and looked up at him, still typing.

"It's part of the story, silly! Twists like that are what makes a good story!" she told him, eyeing her creation warily. "Besides, if you kill me, you'll just disappear in a puff of smoke." She told him, going back to her laptop placidly. He kicked at her, then walked to the center of the room, and faced all the demons assembled there.

"Demons! You have had this…(he kicked at Nicholas's body for the sixth time in a row.) … Satan as your leader for a long time now. No longer! I am your Master now! You do what I say. And what I say is that you find those humans before they escaped from Hell. My brother may have thought that it was safe for them to leave, but not me! GO!" The last word was uttered with such a vengeance that the entire cave seemed to shake with the force of his yell.

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"Katana?" The angel looked around from where she was bent over and examining the hyacinth plants. Alene and Iroras were sitting in the middle of the room, Iroras taking a nap after the tiring events of the day. As Alene spoke, he woke up, blinking his eyes and looking around.

"Yes?" Katana said, walking over to where Alene and Iroras were seated. Alene massaged her leg, wincing as she touched the parts that were broken. The cast on her leg was worse for the wear, but there was no replacing it. The backpack with the medical supplies was probably laying in the Cave of Mirrors still, Alene reflected glumly. The sedative in the cast had worn off, sending sharp pains through her leg every time she moved it. The cast on her chest, too, was beaten up, although not as bad. Still, every time she breathed, she winced slightly.

"Now that we're in this… prison, could you tell us exactly what is going on?" Alene asked her. She wasn't in the best of spirits, being dehydrated, hungry, tired, and most of all hurting in every inch of her body. And the marble floor wasn't comfortable at all. She scowled at herself internally. _Don't complain! You could have the entire army of Hell on your rear end, and instead you're complaining about a numb bottom, _She reminded herself.

Katana sighed and ran her hand through her hair. She supposed that she had to now, since she had run out of excuses for not telling them. She had a feeling that if she insisted that it was better not to tell them, she would find herself in the same room with a murderous duo of exhausted, exasperated humans with big guns. Not a good idea. So she sat down on the floor and composed herself, trying to think of where to begin. At the beginning, she figured, so she launched into a flowery, poetic speech.

"In the beginning, there was only God. The Earth was a desert of barren proportions. And God looked down and said-" She was interrupted by a very cynical Alene.

"Spare us the Scripture, Moses, and get on with the meat of the story." Alene snapped. She knew that she was acting childishly, but she couldn't help but do so. She had been tortured, betrayed, attacked multiple times, scared beyond her wits who knew how many times, all in the past twenty-four hours. She composed herself and shook her head.

"I'm sorry… We've all been through a lot, and I shouldn't be so rude." She muttered, letting her military training take over.

Katana smiled and shook her head. "No, you are right- I forget that you are humans, and the story take millennia to tell in that manner. Besides, we only have a limited amount of time." She took a deep breath and began again. This time Iroras opened his eyes and sat up from his reclining position, and they listened. It might have been hours, or days, or seconds- they couldn't tell. And as Katana spoke, her voice wove a spell so that they saw what she described.

_When Satan was cast down from Heaven, he and all his colleagues were sealed inside the realm of Hell. You have seen this place for yourselves, and know that no words, however foul, can do it justice. No dark lines can describe the horrors contained within, no verse can scratch t__he surface of its fiery planes. __Indeed, an adequate place for Satan, traitor that he was. "Traitor?" you say. "He was merely prideful, thinking that he was better than God himself." No. There is a story not told anywhere but in whispers on the darkest street corners in heaven. A story that is forbidden to tell to mortals. I am telling it, but I… well, you will see. Back to my story. Satan was prideful, yes, but that was not the cause of his downfall. __Satan was a traitor to the Plan. __You see, the angels were not created. That is a misunderstanding. They were free- floating spirits of space and time, drifting endlessly throughout the spiritual planes. He made them aware, bent them to His will. And they were happy to do so. You see, He wanted to command the universe and make it for the better, so his intentions were good. At first… We do not know where He came from. He had no beginning, no end.__ Satan was one of the first to be Awakened. So was I.__ He found a planet, with a people __that would be easily malleable. __And he appeared before them and told them that he was their Creator.__ That was the first Lie. Truly, he meant well, it seemed. He wanted to see this race reach its full potential, he said. But… that was not the case. _(At this point, Katana took a deep breath. It was difficult for her to break her Bond, even here in a Time out of Time.) _I was in the Throne Room when Nicholas came charging in. He was different then, not transformed by hate. I… I had feelings for him, and he had feelings for me. But we never spoke of them. Such feelings are forbidden in our world. He was already on probation as it was. He took an… unnatural interest in the humans, which was unlike us. He had become more like them. Anyway, Nicholas halted before the Throne, and kneeled, as was customary. He then started to speak. "My Lord." He had said. "I- I have seen something disturbing." The angel __Gabriel, the first to be Awakened, asked him what he had seen. Nicholas replied. "I was walking along the fair streets of our city. And indeed they are fair, my Lord! But… I happened upon a building I had never seen before. And I entered. Inside… They were talking, my Lord! Talking of the humans as if they were an experiment to be controlled, a breeding population!!" he had been sincere, staring up at the Lord, wondering what it had meant. But… the Lord had spoken then. He had asked all those who were close to Nicholas to step forward. I- I stepped forward with the rest, about a hundred others who knew him well. Then, the Lord had stood up, and smote Nicholas with a golden fist. __Nicholas had collapsed on th__e floor, looking up in askance at what his Lord was angry at him for. The Lord had then taken all those who were close to him, as well as Nicholas himself, and grouped them in front of him. Then he spoke. I… am forbidden to repeat his exact words, but __basically he said that we were traitors to th__e Plan. And the Plan- H__e had foreseen that there would come a human that would change the fates of million, a human who would __upset everything that had been set in place __after__ they died and destroy__ the balance of Heaven Hell, the mortal planes, and purgatory__You have to understand, he only wanted to see this race, this beautiful race, prosper. So… he was justified in guiding, even controlling them a little. _(Alene nodded at the pleading in Katana's voice, but Iroras remained unconvinced, folding his arms across his chest.) _So he devised a Plan, that those that seemed like they would rebel against him would be damned to a place he called Hell.__ In his book, he described it as a place of fire and brimstone, but it really was mostly like heaven, except the souls there could not travel from the place. You see, the prophecy said that they would do so __after__ death.__ And the angels that had found this out, a chill stole over our hearts as we listened, a disillusionment. What?! Our Lord, controlling and damning souls that could have been saved? We were confused, unsure of what to think. __Our Lord then raised his hand and commanded that those closest to Nicholas would be damned to the fires of this place to watch over those souls that had been cast down there. He, however, had pleaded that we be kind to the souls, since they had committed no crime except that they had showed signs of rebelling against the Church of the Lord. Nicholas had not answered, merely biting his tongue and looking at the ground. And as the Lord had prepared to cast us down, Nicholas had raised his hand and looked straight into the Lord's eyes with a question on his face. "Lord." He had pleaded. "I do not care for my life, for I see that I have been tricked all along. But I care for the one next to me. If it be possible, would you spare her from being trapped underneath the Earth? She does love the flight through the sky with the wind and moon on her wings. It would break her to be trapped underneath the Earth. Also, since we will not be together, remove my fondest memories of her- replace them with memories that I knew her, but only as an acquaintance." He then bowed his head. The Lord had thought for a moment, then agreed, saying that he would punish me differently. __I had clung to Nicholas, crying and telling him not to go. Gabriel had pulled me off of him as first the Lord removed his memories of me, then cast them all down. __I was given the punishment of __flying through the mortal planes and only able to travel to my Home once every ten years, unless __something like this happened. __But… something went wrong, as you see now. The memories that my Lord removed, they were what mostly made him pure and whole. When gone, he turned into the Devil. __And he turned this place into a Hell. We did not know this- until I flew down on a mission from my Lord. It was actually a reprieve, my Lord had relented and let me go see him as a reward. When I came down… It was horrible. I cannot even describe what I thought when I reached this place. And Nicholas was the worst of all. I hid in a room and learned that he was changed much. He hated the Lord with a passion, and was going to break the seal that he himself had placed there so long ago.__ I do not know how, but that is what he is planning.__ The seal that keeps those now-demons and the souls in Hell from __escaping. He is going to break the Seal, and destroy all the planes, to assume the Lord'__s position himself. When I tried to fly back through a Portal, I was attacked and fell down onto your plane._

When Katana ended, there was a long silence. Alene was staring at Katana with wrinkled brow and slightly dropped jaw, as if she had never seen the angel before. Iroras was frowning to himself, his arms crossed across his chest. He spoke slowly, frowning still.

"Where does Amilith, or Purgatory fit into this, then?" he asked her. Katana sighed, looking at Alene. Alene was puzzled. "Amilith…?" she asked.

"Amilith is the Banished one. Not… Not many angels know about him. Most of the newer ones don't even remember who Nicholas is. You see, the Lord put down all the stuff about him tempting people in the Book, but he was _supposed_ to tempt people, to see if they gave in easily, to see if they might be the one who was prophesized. BUT. Amilith was… different. He was Nicholas's brother. From the beginning, he was wrong. He liked to see humans tortured, and hurt. He pretended to be a false God, appearing in front of them and leading them away from the One religion. When the Lord found out, he was extremely angry. He cast him down to the mortal planes, in a passive form that wasn't able to cause any trouble. A ghost, you might have said. But he broke the bond and started causing havoc, possessing individuals and leading them away from the true religion. We tried to catch him, but he was… elusive, killing the host whenever we got close. You know how the rest went. As for Purgatory, it is a place for those who led the middle path, not giving in to the temptation, but still dangerously close. Those that go there have their case reviewed by angels, and then are usually sent on to Heaven." She answered. Alene nodded, sitting back on the floor. Iroras took a deep breath, raking his hand through his hair.

There was silence for a long while as the two mortals digested all that they had been told. It was a lot to digest, and they stayed in one place for more than an hour, just thinking.

Alene was fairly sure that they were doing the right thing- after all, the Lord wanted the human race to succeed, didn't he? It irked her, however, at how He had been manipulating the humans, sending people to Hell who didn't really deserve it. But Hell hadn't been a bad place at the beginning. Alene had even said that it was like Heaven, but the souls were locked in there, unable to travel anywhere else. And He hadn't known that Hell had grown like it was, after all. She realized that the description of Hell in the Book had been merely to scare people into not questioning his Word. It still irked her, somehow, that they had been manipulated all along, and not told the truth. It just didn't seem quite right…

Iroras was unsure of how he felt. On the one hand, people had been sent to Hell who didn't deserve it. But Hell hadn't been horrible in the first place, after all. But the thing he had the most problem with was the manipulating. He HATED with a capital H to be manipulated. Absolutely hated it. And that was what the Lord had done, wasn't it? Manipulated people into believing in him? But… He existed, and he had helped the race along. Given up his only Son, after all, and given them the Ten Commandments. And he did seem to have the race's best interests at heart… Iroras sighed and shook his head. He had to help Katana, regardless of how he felt about the Plan. Katana had risked everything for her human companions. She could have abandoned them a million times, but she hadn't. She had stuck with them and helped them, and suffered tortures for them. She had done a lot more than he would have done in her position, probably. So they owed her their help, at least. With a start, he realized that without her, he never would have been free of Amilith. He would never have been himself, he would have lived and died never knowing that an ancient evil spirit lived inside of him. Without Katana, he would still be killing worlds and murdering millions…. _No, that was not you, Iroras. That was Amilith,_ he said to himself. Still, deep inside, he knew that to be partly false. He could have stopped Amilith. But he hadn't, he had liked it. He had _liked _it. Horrible… He shuddered.

"I have made my decision." All three travelers turned. The Planesmaster was standing there, head bowed as he entered the room. He gazed at all of them with emotionless eyes. Alene fidgeted quietly. What had he decided? With features like his, appearing to have been carved from stone, you couldn't tell. If he didn't take them back to the mortal planes, they would be lost. There was no other way to get back, or Katana would have mentioned it. Wouldn't she have?

"It is too dangerous to let you go to the mortal planes right now. The continuum is at a turning point. Traveling through at such an axis would be extremely dangerous. I am sorry, for not only is it dangerous to travel such an axis- it is impossible. There is an infinite combination of possible futures now. If you tried to travel through the continuum and chose a future that will be negated, you will be negated along with it. Since the chances of you choosing the _right _path are infinity to one, it is quite impossible for you to travel the currents now. Again, I am deeply sorry." He told them, with a hint of pity in his voice. There was a long stretch of silence as each of the party tried to believe what they had just been told.

Iroras remained quiet, silently fuming. They had to get back, or all Hell would break loose. Literally. For the good of the galaxy, he couldn't allow that. For the good of those that he was responsible for, he couldn't allow it. He had destroyed their lives, but he was trying to fix that in any way he could. And he wasn't about to let the contents of Hell itself ruin (or end!) their lives even more.

Alene was incredulous. After all this time, journeying through the depths of despair, to be turned back at this point seemed ridiculous. To be turned back after all they had done, after all they had been through… it was insane! They couldn't remain here in Hell, after all!!... Could they? No, they had to travel to Heaven, to help Alene in any way they could. After all that she had done for them, it was ridiculous not for them to help her. But her opinion was not the subject here- it was Iroras. She would follow her Lord to the ends of the Earth- after all, it was the only thing she had left now, to remain loyal to him and his cause. It defined her.

Katana slowly nodded her head, acknowledging the impossibility of such a travel. They would merely have to wait for a later time, after all- there wasn't that much to it. She opened her mouth to say as much, but never finished her sentence. The air was rent by the most horrible sound imaginable- the sound of the Army of Hell bearing down upon its victims.

Chapter Nine: Escape!... Or Is It?

The sound of the battle cry shook even Iroras- it was an inhuman scream of deafening proportions, carrying within it a mixture of despair, terror, insanity, and even a touch of hellfire. Katana looked around, alarmed. She had been fairly sure that Nicholas would put his armies on them, but so _quickly_- something must have changed, or maybe his army was more organized than she had thought. Perhaps… Although she had a sneaking feeling that there was something else at work, something more devious. But she had no time for speculation- the army sounded close.

The Planesmaster seemed indifferent to the cry, although he seemed to recognize the danger to the trio. He glanced at Katana in question- she nodded. Inclining his gigantic head, he made a gesture for them to all follow him.

"Katana! What's going on?" Alene asked with a touch of anxiety in her voice. But, true to her training, she did not portray the profound terror that the cry had put into the very marrow of her bones- her tone was that of a stout, steadfast soldier inquiring of their general what to do next.

Iroras did not speak, but instead merely nodding in approval at his General- indeed, he had trained her well, if he had done nothing else for her. He glanced at Katana in question, too. If they could not travel back to the mortal planes, where could they go? His military mind already knew that they could not travel back into Hell along the same path that they had come in. It was much to narrow, the enemy would pick them off as soon as they came out. The sheer force of numbers would overwhelm even an angel, the Lord of War, and his General.

Katana did not answer Alene's question, but merely indicated that they should follow the Planesmaster down the hall. They ran after him, Katana even flying as they ventured further and further into the Parthenon-like building. The Planesmaster halted in front of a small platform upon which rested a black slab of marble, shaped like a door and set up upon its end. He pressed his hand to the marble, which glowed briefly, and then faded. Katana's eyes widened as she saw it.

"The Worldstone!" she murmured reverently. Iroras shot a glance at her. What was the Worldstone, and how would it help to get them out of the rather sticky situation that they were in? More and more mysteries- It seemed like Katana hadn't told them _everything_.

"This door is a portal of sorts- it will take you to a set place in the mortal planes, a world that I know to be safe to intrude upon. It is the source of my power- known to many angels as the Worldstone. BUT what Nicholas doesn't know is that it is an emergency door to go to the mortal planes. Just step in and say where you wish to go. I cannot use it because Elementals like myself are forbidden from the mortal planes. We can only travel on the spiritual ones, according to the Original Law. It was for use if all other hope was lost. Now, go! I wish you god speed. May the Holy Ghost guide you upon your travels!" He swept open the door with a jade hand, revealing a glowing rectangle of pure white light. The pull from the thing was irresistible- Alene, Iroras and Katana found themselves diving into it without even knowing what they were doing. As she dove in, Alene caught sight of a small metal spider diving in along with them. But then they were through, and she quickly forgot all of that as she realized exactly where they were with a plummeting heart.

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Amilith paced moodily around the throne room, irked that he hadn't gone with the army to capture the three miscreants. But someone had to stay behind, and he didn't have a Key to get into the Planesmaster's prison. If he tried to get through the door without a Key, he would be held back, unable to go through even as those with Keys passed easily through all around of him. He growled and kicked at the body still laying on the floor. Nicholas had been clever…

"My Lord! We are picking up many strange readings!" Amilith spun on his heel to face the new arrival. It was a demon in charge of the monitors and technology- they did have such things down here, but they were often warped and twisted, because of the strange nature of the plane that they were on. No sentient being would have recognized the computer that the frog- like demon held. It resembled a small black pyramid, with strange green symbols floating around it, projected several inches off of its surface.

"What kind of readings? Answer quickly! My brother may have tolerated tardiness, but not I!" Amilith snapped. The demon quailed under his furious gaze, privately thinking that he had preferred Nicholas to this new, harsher master.

"It seems- seems as if the Great Seal was broken." He garbled in a frog- like voice. He held out the indecipherable monitor, which Amilith studied with interest. His anger suddenly dissolved as a slow smile spread across his face. Well, well, well. Look what had happened… Now, his brother had planned to just overthrow the heavenly planes and destroy the rest. But not Amilith. He was not only going to overthrow the government of the heavenly plane, he was going to do the same to the mortal one. He would finish what he had started as Theilo.

"My Lord? What should we do?" the frog- technician asked. Amilith smiled again, an expression that would strike fear into the heart of the stoutest of men. The fire of Hell danced in his eyes as black flame sprung up around his frame.

"Tell the army to come back. And to bring the Planesmaster with them." Having said that, Amilith slowly changed his appearance until he was an exact clone of Theilo. The smile still on his face, he added: "We're going to travel into the mortal planes."

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Alene stood stock still, unable to believe her eyes. She didn't even notice as the small metal spider imploded with an "oomph". She merely stared around her at the familiar city, cursing the Planesmaster for choosing this particular section of this particular city.

They were standing on a dirty plasteel street in a Lower City complex. It ran through numerous hallways lit by dimly flickering lights. An odor of blood, grease, and sweat of numerous species hung in the air. Most of the teleport booths were out of order, and speed- bike gangs competed for control of the streets of the slum. There were crashed speed- bikes all along the road, as well as several corpses of unlucky- or foolhardy- drivers. There were numerous bars situated all along the maze of ant-like tunnels and streets, as well as gang headquarters. Ancient vid signs advertising numerous outdated products flickered feebly on the walls, while newer holo- signs advertised the bars of the Lower City, each claiming to have the best drinks, duels, and girls. Hardened hooligans roared past on the roads cackling and doing foolhardy tricks on their speed bikes. This was Alene's hometown, and even her gang's turf. At least, it had been. She wasn't sure if it was theirs now still, or whether the Devil's Children had taken this section back. Whichever it was, they were still in serious trouble. She turned to Theilo and Katana, swallowing and going paper- white.

"Look- I used to live here, I was a gang member of a gang called the Black Roses. It's really, really dangerous here. I'm not kidding. We need to get our weapons out on the double and get out of here as soon as poss-" Alene never got to finish her sentence as a speed – bike drove by, the idiot driver shooting randomly at whoever was unlucky enough to be in his path. Alene reacted out of experience, grabbing Theilo and Alene and slamming them onto the floor before doing a face dive onto the floor herself.

"You humans are capable of awful things." Katana remarked once the bike was past. She stood up and dusted off her wings. Iroras and Alene both snorted with laughter at the same time as they got up, both of them smiling wryly.

"You just noticed?" Alene asked. Iroras looked around a second time, pulling a gun out of his boot. He tossed Alene and Katana two laspistols. Alene caught hers dexterously, while Katana picked hers up cautiously.

"Aim the little end at the enemy, then pull the trigger." Alene summarized, checking the battery on her gun. Still enough juice for years. Twirling hers like a gunslingers, she shoved it into her boot.

"Alene, could you try to contact your old gang for help? We need supplies and medical care, and I know that gang members are sworn for life, if another gang member ever needs help." Iroras asked her. She shook her head, hiding a flicker of emotion at seeing Alex again, a confused longing. She reminded herself that she was done with that life, that she had sworn never to come back. Besides, she was different now- she could never fall back into the old patterns. Ever. That had been then, this was now. She raised her arm to smooth down her hair, and winced as she moved. Her leg was really hurting her, and her chest. Iroras was right- as much as she hated to, they needed to get supplies. She sighed, trying not to think that she had convinced herself too easily.

"You're right, Iroras. We need help." She smiled at the unintentional pun, and Iroras laughed softly. Only Katana did not get the joke, looking from one human to the other confusedly.

"Our base is- was this way." Alene said, pointing down the tunnel. She hid how she felt, ducking her head as she spoke. It was painful, seeing all these old places and everything... Iroras nodded, meeting her eyes and, without words, expressing that he knew exactly how she felt. She nodded, and led them down the street without a word.

It was strange, walking down these streets that she had used to walk down. So many memories were tied to all these places- Here was where she had gotten shot during a scrimmage, and Alex had found her, by the crumbling pylon. This was where they had found the really good scavenging pile and had spent hours and hours combing through it, where she had found the old documentary tapes.

As they approached the nearly invisible door in the wall, it sprung open and three gang members sprang out, guns leveled at them. They were all hardened ruffians, with tattoos galore and a permanent angry glare. "Drop your guns!" the leader barked, a man with long messy black hair and a tattoo of a speed bike on his bare forearms. Alene knew that he was old, about fifty, but still looked like he was thirty, because of an anti- aging supplement he had managed to procure. Most gang leaders took them, knowing that as soon as they showed weakness, some young upstart would murder them and take their place. He was clad in a black armor- vest, black thermo- pants, and a pair of ancient black boots. He had dark eyes, a pierced lip, and a rather protruding chin.

"You told us never to give up our weapons to an enemy, Devin." Alene mockingly said to her former gang leader, brushing back her bangs to reveal the gang tattoo upon her brow.

Immediately, Devin's whole disposition changed. He dropped his gun from its guard position, clicked on the safety, and ran forward to grasp Alene's hand. His eyes were alight- he seemed both incredulous and overjoyed at the same time.

"Nighthawk! It's been a long time!" he exclaimed. Glancing at her companions, he raised his eyebrows. Iroras inclined his head, while Katana smiled uncertainly. "Who are these guys?" he asked her, looking suspiciously at Iroras. He noticed her clothing about then. "You're in the military?"

Alene laughed slightly. "It's a long, long story, Devin. But this is Iroras Theilo, and Katana." She explained, gesturing towards each as she introduced them. Devin's eyes bulged out of his head when he heard the name "Theilo".

"Woah! Not THE Theilo? And what's with the angel girl?" he asked a trifle rudely. Alene shrugged.

"Yeah, it _is _The Lord of War. And Katana- well, she's… from a planet on the edge of the void." Alene said. It was strange to be among… _normal_ people again, people who had no idea of the planes, of what might befall them soon. Even the gang members, who she had looked up to growing up, seemed so childish. Devin had really been her father. As far as gang leaders went, he wasn't so bad. Really, all of the planet was gangs, so you were in one as soon as you were born. The Black Roses, which Devin was the leader of, were more of a family than an actual gang. He had found her wandering around the city as a teenager after her parents had died, when she was being attacked by a Devil's Child. He had killed the guy, then brought her to his base. She had grown up as a Silver Ghost, met Alex (a new Silver Ghost) when she was eighteen, had a kid when she was twenty, then left when she was twenty- five to work for Theilo.

"It's dangerous out here, let's go inside. Your friends can come, too." Devin said. "I'm really stepping out on a limb for you here- strictly speaking, we aren't allowed to have strangers inside base. But since they're friends of yours…" he trailed off as the trio followed him inside the base. Other Black Roses, recognizing Alene, shouted out greetings as they made their way though.

The whole base was shaped like a giant U, with the bottom being the man center of operations. Ancient computers and other monitors lined the hall, and there were many other gang members talking quietly about plans and battle strategies. The arms of the U contained different rooms, such as the infirmary, multiple storehouses, meeting rooms, dormitories, ect. It was into the left arm that Devin led them, Iroras looking around at the operations and Katana, rather intimidated by the strange humans and kilas staring at her, keeping quiet.

Devin led the three into a small room with several hover- chairs, closed the door, and gestured for them all to sit down. He looked much more serious and, even, Alene noticed, much older than he had looked under the forgiving lights of the fading hallways. Here, under the brighter lights of the base, you could see grey streaks in his hair, bags under his eyes, frown wrinkles on his forehead. He rubbed his forehead, looking tired.

"Alene, what's all of this _really _about? I have this… feeling… that there's something you're not telling me. Something that's almost too big to comprehend. For your sake and for your friends, please tell me. I'll help you any way I can." He said, staring right into Alene's eyes.

Alene sighed, looking down at the grey plasteel floor, then up at the ceiling. "Alright, Devin, you asked for it. But this will sound really, really crazy." She finally admitted, looking at him.

"That's all right- trust me, I've seen a lot of crazy zeck. This can't be crazier than anything else I've heard. Just give me a basic outline why you, a creature that looks like a zecking angel, and the ZECKING Lord of War turned up at my doorstep looking like you've just been through Hell." Devin responded, leaning back in his seat.

Alene looked at Iroras and Katana for encouragement. Katana smiled, and Iroras mouthed "Good Luck." She snorted and turned back to Devin.

"All right. A basic outline? How's this: Katana is an angel, from a higher plane of existence who crashed into Theilo's ship. When we tried to take her back to her plane, we got sidetracked and ended up landing in a lower plane, also known as Hell, instead. After a pleasant jaunt through the burning pit of fire, prisons of the Devil's castle and a portal, we wound up here after narrowly escaping the armies of Hell again." Alene said all in one breath. She knew that she was being rude and short, but she was tired, hungry, and her leg and chest were throbbing painfully. Devin blinked as she finished. There was a short moment of silence while he took it in, then stood up and walked over to her. He bent down and stared directly into her eyes.

"Do you _swear_ that you are telling the truth?" he asked her, staring into her eyes. "Do you zecking swear by everything you possess?" There was a short pause as Alene stared back into his eyes.

"Yes, Devin, I do." She responded seriously. "By everything I possess." In her voice was such utter conviction that Devin reeled for a second. How could this be? Was she insane? Yet… Yet… he had always had a feeling…

"Alright. I have to… I have to think about this. Meanwhile, you three can have any free rooms that you can find. Go to the infirmary- if they complain, say Devin sent you. Rest and get yourselves better- I have to go on a scavenging mission to the Under- city." Devin said in a tired voice. Then, awkwardly, he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Welcome home, Nighthawk."

Alene stared after Devin long after the door had closed, then realized that Iroras had said something. She blinked, shook herself, and turned around. "Yes, Iroras?" she asked, still rather dazed.

"I never knew that you used to be in a gang on this planet." Iroras said awkwardly. "I'm sorry for making you bring us here- it must be painful." He met her eyes briefly, al the emotions that he couldn't reveal in his speech spilling out through his eyes. The silence was interrupted by the door banging open. A man, about Alene's age, was standing in the door. He had short, spiked blond hair, blue eyes, and a tall, lean, muscled body. He wore nothing except a pair of fatigue armor- jeans, and he had several tattoos on his bare chest. He generated an aura of arrogant masculinity, with a sort of relaxed confidence of his abilities bordering on arrogance. His eyes were defiant, yet also almost apathetic, a curious combination. Without saying anything, he walked forward and kissed a stunned Alene passionately. When she tried to pull away, he only forced her closer. Iroras immediately stiffened- his eyes became slits, he bared his teeth and formed his hands into fists. That man- DARE _touch_ HIS General?!?! He walked forward, and without pausing, grabbed the Don Juan, and yanked him off Alene and onto the floor.

"Do not kiss my General without her express permission."Iroras snarled at the frightened man on the floor. He didn't recognize the man before him as the famous Theilo, and so sneered up at him with a mad gleam in his eye. Executing frontwards flip, he stood back up in a maneuver that would have shamed an Olympian.

"Look, chuck- that babe's MY girl. I don't know who you are, but ah'm gonna give you to the count of ten to get out of here so I can speak to my girl _privately._" He said in a snotty tone of a childish twenty- year old.

Iroras curled his lip at the man. He hated people like this… Not pausing to consider, he walked forward and calmly started hitting him in places only a man experienced with torture would know, and only a heartless slug would execute. After only a few seconds, the impudent young man was curled into a ball on the floor, whimpering. Just as Iroras was about to kick him a third time, Alene grabbed his arm and shook her head. Iroras grudgingly stood back and let the severely battered man stand up- (much more painfully and slowly this time)

"So, ya got tired of me and got yerself a fancy new rich boyfriend who can _protect _you." He spat, wiping blood from his nose. Alene looked at him disgustedly, utter loathing in her eyes.

"You blamed me for our son's death, you miserable zecking slug!" she growled. He raked his hand through his hair, looking sorry for himself. The effect was enhanced by his two black eyes and multiple bruises.

"I was drunk and distraught, baby! I loved you, I still do! Come on! You blamed me first, you know!" he said pleadingly. She softened, her eyes flickered downwards. It was true- she had blamed him for their son's death, after which he had gone off and gotten drunk, _then_ came home and blamed her. She suddenly felt insecure.

"You shouldn't have gotten drunk! What kind of idiot goes off and gets drunk when his wife needs him most? Lots of other guys do that, yeah, but I'm not married to any of them! Not anymore!" she threw right back. It was Alex's turn to feel insecure and ashamed of himself and look down at the floor. She was right… Zeck, he had lost a perfectly good girl! And Alene had had a good head on her shoulders, not like any of the five other flowerpots that he was dating.

"Look, I don't know who you are or why you're molesting my General, but she needs medical care." Iroras snarled at the man, then turned Alene and led her out the door.

Stunned, from his complete and utter failure to hit on his old wife, Alex stood staring at the door for several minutes, trying to figure out what he had done. Shrugging, Alex turned to Katana, who didn't know what to do. "So, you from out of town, baby?" he asked her, giving her a dazzling smile. Katana, giving him an uncertain smile in return, ran after her friends. If Alene and Iroras didn't like the man, she was pretty sure that she shouldn't mess with him. She was knowledgeable about planes, the Plan, and life after death, but human interactions were an art that was not her forte.

"Who was that?" Iroras asked Alene, following her to the hospital wing. He felt very strange at how he had reacted towards the man. As soon as the man had kissed Alene, he had lost control. Just lost it. He wasn't sure why he had reacted that way- after all, he kept telling Alene to find a different man than him. But that man…! He had driven Iroras up the wall as soon as he had kissed his General. Very strange…

"An old husband. I… had a kid with him. He took the kid with him scavenging. The kid got shot. I left to join your army." Alene said shortly, not looking at Iroras. He winced at her tone. He had touched a raw nerve- better to turn the topic to something safer. But he couldn't think of anything else, so they walked on in silence.

Alene felt a whole crop of emotions at seeing Alex again. First, and foremost, was hatred. She hated that man with a passion, because of what had happened to her life because of him. Absolutely hated him- the stuck up prig! She thought that she had ran away from all that, she thought that it was all over with. Or so she had surmised until they had been spewed out of the portal onto the streets here. It was ironic, in a way. She had run away from it, only to be drawn back under such bizarre conditions. The second emotion that haunted her was a sense of homecoming, of belonging. She was tempted to forget everything, to forget Iroras and Katana, all that plane zeck. To just live here again, to live a fast, fierce existence and not think of anything outside the small world of the gang wars. But she couldn't go back. Not now, not ever. Not with all she knew- at least right now. They had to stop Nicholas from taking over all of Creation, then maybe… Maybe she could come back and live out the rest of her life here, among the people that had been her family. She was spared any further thought as they arrived at the hospital wing and Katana caught up with them.

"Hey! Alene, girl! Long time, no C!" An impossibly tall, dark-skinned man, who wore a full- armor suit, ran out of the infirmary to pump her hand delightedly. "You're pretty busted up! Well, come inside and I'll see what I can do for you. These your friends? Nice to meet any friends of Alene's, she was my favorite gang member, little Alene was." The man's exuberant energy was all-encompassing- it made Alene feel better already.

"Oh, Doc, you say that about everyone." Alene said, blushing. TO have someone call her their favorite gang member- put her right back in the old times..

She shook her head, trying to get the old memories out, and gestured at Katana. "Katana, this is another old friend- meet Doc. Doc, this is my friend Katana, and my friend Iroras." He graciously took Katana's hand, bowing slightly and smiling. Alene bit back a smile as he kissed Katana's fingers, and the angel laughed slightly, unused to human etiquette. Doc- always the charmer, Alene thought with a wry smile. After he had been introduced to Katana, Doc turned, grabbed Iroras's hand, and pumped it vigorously. Even Iroras was fighting back a smile, which finally broke though.. Alene was so distracted by this that she didn't even notice that Doc led her inside of the infirmary. _He looks beautiful when he smiles…_ she thought dreamily, then shook herself. None of that right now- Doc had to fix her up. And besides… It sounded selfish to say this, but they probably were all going to die anyway in very short order, so she probably shouldn't get too attached to him. As she lay down on the bed and pulled up her pant leg, Doc whistled.

"What did you do to this poor cast, Alene?" he asked in a humorously sorrowful voice, removing the sad tatters of the cast from the leg with a laser- cutter. Alene grinned, thinking of all it had been through.

"Uh… it's been though a lot." She replied, laughing slightly. It was so nice to be able to _laugh _at things, to take life less than seriously after all that they had been through. Doc whistled as she tore her shirt open so that he could take that cast off as well. "You REALLY did a number on yourself, girl. Where have you been?" he asked her, cutting off the sad remains of that cast as well. She shrugged guiltily.

"Hell." Iroras responded, smiling wryly. Doc laughed, walking over to the medical supplies cupboard. He drew out a vial of something that looked like a solid and liquid at a same time, and was metallic in color. He held it reverently as he walked back over to Alene.

"Now these… are spiders. Very new technology, just developed. They're nano- healers, tiny robots." He held up a hand as Iroras frowned and started to speak. "I know that after Cytech vs. the Galactic Ethics Court that robots aren't allowed to perform any treatments, but these babies can't be reprogrammed by any technology that's available yet." He finished, applying the nano- healers to the skin above Alene's broken bones. The fluid sunk through her skin, and she relaxed, able to feel them working at her bones and muscle.

Iroras raised his eyebrows. This was indeed interesting. He would have to get some for his fleets- then he remembered that he wasn't the Lord of War anymore- he wasn't aiming for galactic domination. He wasn't that person anymore… What would he do after this was all over? _If I survive, that is_, he thought wryly. But really. Just disappear, to some remote planet in a far corner of the galaxy? For some reason that he wasn't sure of, visions of him and Alene running off together played through his head. But, with a sinking feeling, he realized that it was, after all, just a fantasy. No matter where he went, they would find him eventually, bring him before the Galactic Court, and prosecute him. No doubt he would feel the sharp edge of the death penalty. Death… he had experienced it once before, but not in a place he cared to end up in. Where would he go, if he died? Hell? Most likely. Purgatory? Possibly, although he would be lucky to end up there. Heaven? Definitely not. If heaven's justice was anything like the Galaxy's, he would be lucky not to end up in the deepest flame pit of hell. But then there was the fact of the Breach to consider- what would the planes end up as after this whole thing was over? Would hell remain in Nicholas's control, or would it become like it was in the beginning? He suspected the former… So many questions, so few answers. And somehow only he, his General, and a half- fallen angel stood in the way of the worst holocaust ever to scar the face of a planet, galaxy, or solar system. How was that for fate? Strange, that fate would choose such a man as him to lead the resistance against such an evil. But fate worked in mysterious ways…

Katana glanced at the mortals around her. They were happy- Alene at least. Iroras looked half- way content, if not happy. Well, at least they were able to rest and forget what had happened. There were many things that she had to tell them still, things that weighed heavily on her shoulders. She glanced up at the ceiling. It was unfair of Him to lay so much on just two humans, she thought. After all, they were just mortals- but… She had seen them do some amazing things in the past few days. Perhaps being mortal made you stronger, in a way? Maybe in being mortal, you felt life, love, loyalty and purpose stronger than an immortal? Perhaps. Just perhaps, these two were the right ones for the job. She did not wholly doubt it- they were strong, she knew that. Stronger than any other mortals she had ever seen. But then again, perhaps every mortal would be the same under these conditions? After all, they seemed to be able to thrive in the harshest conditions. Nothing was as it seemed with the mortals… They might have the true seeds of greatness in every one of their souls…

As Alene chatted with Doc, she nearly forgot everything that had happened over the course of the last couple days. To be back among familiar friends and be able to forget the past for a while- it was truly a wonderful feeling. She hadn't experienced it in a while, never remembered how being in a _family _felt. It was coming home to a warm meal after a long day at work. It was being in your bed at night and knowing that your family was all around you and wouldn't let any harm come to you. The happiness that she felt was almost _tangible, _she felt it so strongly.

It was well that she were happy for a while, at least, for she didn't know the trials that lay before her in the days to come, trials that she couldn't possibly imagine.

EPILOUGUE: The Darkness to Come

Amilith flew through the silence of the black space, relishing the feel of his wings beating against the dark stillness of the void outside the galaxy, and the immense speed that he was traveling at. Planets, solar systems flicked by like pages of a book being flipped. He complimented himself on the masterpiece of a plan that he had designed, the utter simplicity, yet total deadliness. How beautiful, dark, cruel… He laughed out loud to think of Iroras's face when he found out. The silly mortal- he really thought that Amilith would leave him alone so quickly? No… No, not until Iroras gave him what he wanted. And until then, Iroras would be very, very miserable. Baring his teeth, he flew faster, enjoying the fierce energy of flight through such vast stretches of space. It made him feel powerful, unbeatable, exhilarated. Ready for anything.

As he cruised through the stretches of space, he spotted his destination- a long, cylindrical black ship floating in the black stretches of space like a giant bat. Or coffin. Folding his wings and going into a dive, he cruised towards the ship with one, deadly purpose. As he reached the space glass on the front of the bridge, technicians and soldiers looked up, then scattered like leaves before the storm. A storm of untold proportions the likes of which had never been seen before in all of the mortal planes. Laughing to himself, Amilith passed through the glass like a liquid. Or like a black mist that seeped its way through the cracks of night into the sunlight of the day. As he landed on the black metal of the bridge heavily, his boots ringing an eerie sound on the metal, his wings faded from sight, leaving a figure identical to that of the original Lord of War.

The bridge was silent as technicians and soldiers cautiously raised themselves from their hiding places, guns pointed at the new arrival. As they saw who it was, however, they relaxed, Amilith already casting a subtle spell of obedience in the very air around his figure, bending all their wills to that of his. In no time at all, he had them completely under his control. Deciding to make an example to force the strong- willed one under his will with fear, he nudged one mentally to step forward and speak.

"L- Lord Theilo? H- How? You had- wings…" one technician sputtered, coming cautiously towards him. Amilith drew a gun from a holster that had appeared at his side, and without hesitation, shot the unlucky technician in the chest. He crumpled to the floor like paper, without a sound. Amilith kicked the corpse aside with his foot.

"Any more questions?" he hissed. The crew around him relaxed, already forgetting what they had seen before, both partly because of human nature and partly because Amilith wanted them to. This was the Lord of War that they knew, feared, and served. One man stepped forward timidly, shaking down to the bottom of his boots.

"It's good- to have- to have you back, Lord." He said quietly. Amilith laughed, watching the black void of space outside the window.

"It's good to be back, General Melas." He responded in a deadly voice. And he meant that in many more ways than one. Many, many more ways… As he laughed quietly to himself, the planet outside the window disintegrated, turning to space dust the moment he aimed his deadly voice at it. Millions of innocents died at a glance from his eyes, an inflection in his voice. There was a new Lord of War now, and he was ready to take on any and all opposition with deadly, and other- worldly force. A new era was beginning, and no one would be spared the holocaust that he would create. No man, woman, or child would not feel the hellfire licking at their feet as he swept through the galaxy like the scythe of the Reaper himself…

TO BE CONTINUED IN…

LORD OF WAR

BOOK II: GUNSMOKE


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